I just can't help myself
by ThePink1 at Reefside.Net
Summary: A rough day 'on the job', and a mishap with their Astral Drops, has Will and the others fearing for Hay Lin ... A Mystic Prequel
1. Chapter 1

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Fanfiction by: _A J_

_(Standard Disclaimer Applies)_

Chapter 1

"Kinda I want to"

Their day started out as normal as possible; that is, as normal as a day for the Guardians could. By second period, Will and the others were standing under their favorite tree in the courtyard between classes, calling out their Astral Drops and folding to Candracar. Matt stood just inside the door of Sheffield Institute with Elyon, the pair tagging the 'Drops with glamours to enhance their resemblance of the five girls. The light mystic touch also ensured that if any of the 'Drops were messed with magically, as Nerissa had with Will's, the pair would be the first to know, and could head off any impending disasters.

Throughout the day, they worried, they fretted, and eventually, they headed over to the Silver Dragon, resignedly leading the Astral Drops along like so many ducklings. As fate would have it, the other boyfriends of the girls had joined up in the procession. Matt kept trading scared looks with Elyon as he and 'Mina (Will's awakened Altermere, who now appeared instead of a normal Astral Drop) led the other Guardians' 'Drops, arm in arm.

Astral Irma was creeping Elyon and Matt out the most, since she'd decided that the ever-pining Martin Tubbs was okay. The two were next-to last in the line, holding hands and blushing whenever their eyes met.

Taranee's 'Drop was acting the closest to normal, in that she'd apparently channeled all of the original's phobias at once. She looked like Adrian Monk from television, constantly shying away from everything, and only letting Nigel hold her gloved hand so nothing else could touch it

Caleb was carrying the Astral Cornelia piggyback, something all the others were finding absolutely hilarious, since the real Earth Guardian would have never done something like that. Her 'Drop had found Cornelia's silly side, and was alternately pretending to be an airplane, arms spread wide and raspberried engine sounds included, and teasing Caleb mercilessly, mostly with kisses, but at least once (to his embarrassment and Elyon's outright shock) with a wet willie.

Trailing behind by an increasing margin were Eric Lyndon and Hay Lin. The two kept stopping to make out, mostly at intersections, which is how they'd ended up at the back to begin with. They had started kissing while the group waited for a light to change at Four Street, and had still been liplocked when the gang had crossed without them, and the light had changed again before they'd come up for air. Fortunately, 'Mina had missed them on the other side, and had gotten the others to wait.

"Evidently, she's found Hay's missing inner hormonal teenager," Matt observed worriedly. "Hopefully the real Hay Lin comes back before he gets past second base." Nigel, Elyon and 'Mina started laughing, but each stopped as the full thought-train made it through their brains.

"Oh my gosh," Elyon answered. "Do you think one of us ought to go to Candracar to find out what's taking them so long?"

"Wait 'til we get to the restaurant," Caleb answered her, slowly doing a large circle around the others with the giggling Cornelia sputtering over his shoulders. Elyon was glad she had volunteered to hang on to the blonde 'Drop's purse; she'd have dropped it before they'd gotten out of the school yard, at this rate. "We can ride herd on these four better there, and whoever goes can duck out under cover of a run to the privy."

"What if they can't come back right away?" 'fraidy-Taranee' asked, wringing her hands. Nigel winced; she hadn't let his go first. Elyon looked up at Matt with a sick feeling. The weekend was still a day away, and they could cover the more obvious character-misprints of the Astral Drops okay at school, but once they all went home, all bets were off.

Taranee and Irma's family's weren't likely to notice anything amiss, but Cornelia's silliness was evidently escalating as she grabbed the hats off of Irma and 'Mina's heads. And if they didn't get Hay Lin and Eric separated soon, the young Asian girl was fast becoming a candidate for one of those after-school specials about teen promiscuity, not to mention public indecency.

The pair was 'Dirty Dancing' to the random hip-hop tune that was playing from the nearby record store. If they hadn't been making slow but steady progress forward still, Matt was ready to hoist Astral Hay over his shoulder and carry her home. As was, he was sure Yan Lin was going to give Matt, Elyon, Nigel, and 'Mina an earful at the earliest opportunity. The three-and-a-half of them finally led the rest to the Silver Dragon, where Astral Taranee started to hyperventilate over 'public air-conditioning germs' out of the blue.

"Tell you what," Nigel said, inhumanly patient at this point. Elyon knew it was out of devotion to the real Taranee. "Why don't we go wait in the park, while the others find out what's what, okay?" The poor 'Drop, overcome with the kindness of the suggestion, threw her arms around his neck with a sobbing _"Yes!"_

Matt and the others watched the pair walk off bemusedly for a moment, then 'Mina opened the door of the best Chinese restaurant in town and the group filtered in. As Hay and Eric straggled past her, 'Mina grabbed her hand for a second, and waved Eric on with a murmured "Girl Talk."

Hay Lin's 'Drop pouted for a moment when he released her hand, then turned to Will's Altermere with her original's usual peppy grin. "'sup, Will?" she giggled.

"Let's talk downstairs, okay?" Before waiting for an answer, she just led the 'Drop to the basement in the back of the Silver Dragon. As soon as she had set foot on the staircase however, Astral Hay dug her heels in.

"I can't see Eric from therrrre," she whined. 'Mina screwed her brain up for a second, trying to see the situation from the 'Drop's perspective, then just gave it up as a bad idea.

"Look, Hay-hay, I just don't want to freak the poor guy out, okay? I need to go to Candracar for a second, and I want you to come with me. You know I hate going there alone." It wasn't _quite_ a lie; Will was never comfortable in the Heart of Infinity without having at least one of the other Guardians along anymore, ever since Nerissa's prolonged impersonation of the Mage of Meridian. The former Heartwielder had proven that even the Congregation of Candracar could be fooled. Besides that, taking along the Astral Drop would serve to keep her separated from Eric for at least a few minutes, and that meant a few minutes they weren't having to watch the pair like mother bears.

"Oh, okay!" Hay Lin's Astral Drop agreed and danced down the stairs, now dragging 'Mina in her wake. As soon as they were at the bottom she twirled around, her pigtails fluttering up and around her head until she looked like a helicopter about to take off. "Dum-de-dum-de-dee, you're off to Candracar with me," Astral Hay sing-songed, and 'Mina smiled despite herself. This is what she missed the most about not being 'alive' all the time, the little moments with the girls just being girls, instead of having to be 'The Guardians'. She had a sudden thought, but kept it to herself for the next time she talked to Will. For now, they had a mission. Well, she had a mission, anyway. Two missions, if you counted keeping Hay Lin amongst the virginal. "Hey, are we gonna get changed before we go?" Hay 'Drop asked suddenly, waving a hand up and down her lanky frame. Then she grinned. "Ooooh! And can I stay 'Guardianed up' when we get back? I wanna surprise Eric!"

"Aaaahhhh, no. We're not gonna be there long, and I don't want to give the Oracle any more reasons to take my Heart from me." 'Mina knew she was pushing her luck just making a fold, since Yan and Mira had both told her that Altermeres were closely monitored by some of Candracar's more conservative Congregation members, and severely punished for the slightest infractions.

Drawing her duplicate of the Heart of Candracar out, she waved it in the air between the two girls, creating a fold. "Come on: just there, ask our question, and back. Easy-peasy." With a gulp, she grabbed Astral Hay's hand and stepped through the fold, which closed behind them.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Back upstairs in the restaurant, Elyon sat upright. It was a marked change from where she had been, slumped over in the booth she was sharing with Caleb (also laying his head on the table in abject humiliation), Astral Cornelia (who was currently 'racing' two sugar packets around a hastily-assembled obstacle course on the tabletop - complete with sound effects), Martin and Irma 'Drop (who had progressed to sharing a soda and making sappy google-eyes at each other over the table. Reaching over and tapping Caleb on the shoulder, Elyon told him quietly that 'Mina had gone to Candracar for everybody, and had taken Astral Hay with her – for safety's sake.

At his miserable nod, she smiled back reassuringly. "Don't worry. You know she won't want to stay there long, and she'll get the answers before she's back, same as Will would." His answering smirk was quavering, at best. Then he just lowered his head back to the table with a 'thwok'.

Turning and delivering the same messages to Matt, she couldn't help but notice his distracted air. "What's wrong, Matt?"

"Just trying to fight the weirdness, Elyon. Have you noticed how clingy they all are? Even 'Mina?" Matt shook his head. "Usually, this kind of thing only crops up if the girls have something strongly on their minds before they create a 'Drop. This … this looks like they had either their boys on their minds before they left, which – hey, I can't say I mind, or considering Taranee's panic mode, their own survivability for this mission was in question."

"Then how do you explain …" Elyon nodded in Astral Cornelia's direction, and raised her brows questioningly.

Matt grinned. "Oh, that one's too easy. Irma probably said something crazy like normal, Cornelia called her on it, and Irma told her she was being too serious again. And we all know how Corny responds to criticism." The two looked back at the 'Drop, who had progressed to a 'crash-up derby' involving all the sugar packets she could reach, _still _with sound effects, and shook their heads sadly.

Astral Cornelia interrupted her next packet-smashing long enough to raspberry the two of them. "Don't call me Corny," she whispered, giggled, and continued her planned demolition with a great "BOOM!" Irma and Martin both jerked away from their drink, spraying the table with cola.

"I am _SO_ glad we're the only ones here right now," Caleb said into the tabletop, and started banging his head on it quietly. Ravening hordes of enemies he could handle. This … not so much.

Elyon looked at Matt with a wicked grin. "You know, we could always send her home as-is anyway; Lillian wouldn't know what hit her."

"It'd be the most fun she'd ever have with her sister, that's for sure." He laughed quietly for a moment, then straightened up with a scared look on his face. "Crap, quick, glamour a page from T for me, will ya? Her 'panic meter' just shot through the ceiling, and I want a realistic reason for having to 'run' to the park."

Nodding worriedly, Elyon glanced around, and noticed that 'Mina had left Will's phone on her backpack, which Matt was still carrying for her. _'Perfect,'_ she thought, pointing at it and making it ring once, then glamouring Taranee's number on the front screen. Matt jumped when he heard the opening bars of 'The Will to Love', and Elyon grinned, despite the situation. Apparently, he hadn't heard Will's new ringtone before now.

Glancing down at the screen and seeing Taranee's number displayed, Matt tried to answer the phone. Since it wasn't a real call though, there wasn't anything to answer. Closing Will's phone, he stood up with a muttered curse. With a wink of thanks in Elyon's direction, he turned to the others and said he was going to check on the pair at the park, just in case. Caleb gave him a captive, panicked look, which Matt had to hide his smile after, and Eric just gave him a distracted wave, wondering how much longer Will's 'girl talk' was going to keep Hay Lin away. Looking down at the phone to check the time, Matt wondered the same thing for a second, then handing the device to Elyon, he said "Be right back. With any luck, it's just a dead cell battery on T's end." With that he hurried out the door and over to the park.

_w.i.t.c.h._

'Mina and Astral Hay hurried in to the Chamber of the Congregation from the balcony they'd arrived on. For some unknown reason, the Heart brought them somewhere different each time they arrived in Candracar. Once, it had even put them in the basement of the Library tower, amongst the gathered refuse of centuries of research by the inhabitants. Today's jog was only a matter of minutes, as opposed to the hour that day had led to.

The Oracle looked up from the viewing pool as the pair of girls entered. "Ah! Our prodigal daughter returns. But why did you bring an As …" 'Mina's hurried waving interrupted him just in time.

"Something's gone weird with the others, Oracle, and we wanted to know how much longer the Guardians were gonna be away." She gave a motion with her eyes, so he would know the problem involved Hay Lin's double, as well.

"Hmmmm, I see." He looked back down at the viewing pool for a moment, and waved his hand before him, changing the view he was presented with. 'Mina peeked over the edge, to see the Silver Dragon's main dining room. Martin, Irma, and Cornelia were cornered behind Caleb and Elyon in a booth. Irma and her mortal frienemy were sipping on straws from the same glass, and Cornelia, having 'wrecked' all the sugar packets in one huge pile, was now slowly emptying them one by one into a teacup in front of Caleb, while reciting the poem "How do I love thee? Let me count the ways …" Eric was sitting in the next booth by himself, slowly stirring the fizz out of his orange soda.

"Where's Matt?" 'Mina asked, then blushed before looking at the Oracle. He smiled understandingly, though, and with another wave, the three saw Matt arrive at the park, panting out "What's wrong?" to a flustered Nigel, who was collapsed on a park bench with a crying Taranee 'Drop in his lap.

"Awwww, no more Eric," Astral Hay pouted.

"A squirrel, man. Just a squirrel. Darn thing bounced an acorn off the top of her head while we were walking under that tree over there." Nigel indicated with a toss of his head one of the oaks nearby. "She panicked and jumped into my arms, crying her eyes out. I just got us over to this bench, and waited it out." He lowered his voice unnecessarily. "Please tell me the others are back, man. The sooner we put all our Humpty Dumpties together again, the better." He looked down at Astral Taranee tenderly. "I will miss this though. She won't even let me hug her yet, normally."

Matt crouched down to Taranee's eye level. "Hey, champ. You up to walking back to the restaurant? I'll bring you guys out a couple of chairs," he said, raising the last word so she'd look at him. She gave a great sniffle and nodded, still clinging to Nigel. The two guys both grinned, and Matt held out both hands. "C'mon, Nigel'll need the circulation in his legs for the walk. Up you get." At her worried look at his hands, he wriggled his fingers slowly. "You can feel yourself riiiisiiiing," he chanted, like a stage magician.

Astral Taranee laughed in spite of her overwhelming fears, and slowly took his hands. Pulling her gently to her feet, he gave her a reassuring smile. "Attagirl." He looked over at Nigel. "Any time now, man." Nigel just flipped him off where she couldn't see it, and Matt chuckled.

"Gods, no wonder Will loves him," 'Mina sighed. "Are you sure we can't make an Altermere of him, too?" she wheedled, giving the Oracle puppy dog eyes. He laughed.

"For your sake, my poor daughter, I would be tempted, but I think one Altermere with the powers of a Heart is already a strain on the Congregations' good will. Perhaps, when Lillian has finally claimed her own, and if – IF – Mister Olsen feels as strongly for both of you, we'll have this conversation again." He gave her an understanding smile as she pretended to pout, but she couldn't keep up the act for long. That didn't stop her from giving the picture of Matt leading a tearful Taranee 'Drop and a limping Nigel out of the park one more longing look.

Astral Hay Lin said "Awwww," at the look on her face. "I guess I'm not the only one missing her man. So let's get back already!" She grabbed 'Mina's hand and started for the door again, only to be brought up short by the larger girl's mass. "Man, I hate being the skinny one," she muttered, as 'Mina turned back to the Oracle.

"How long before the others get back?" she repeated, with a roll of her eyes.

"Let's find out," he replied, but instead of waving his hand over the viewing pool, he bustled around towards the door himself and motioned for them to follow. Mystified, the pair trailed behind him down the hall and across the chamber of the Aurameres to another corridor, to see a series of doors with the elemental symbols on them.

"We've never been here before," 'Mina blurted. "Come to think of it, I don't remember ever seeing these doors before, either."

"These rooms only appear when a Guardian is injured too badly to just change back to her regular body and go home. They are extensions of the Aurameres, which utilize the connections the individual Guardians share with their elements to heal them." The Oracle led the two to the third door, where the glyph of Fire seemed to be perpetually burning into the panel as it pulsed with an inner light. "Perhaps Taranee's fears for this particular task were not entirely unfounded. The others are in here with her, waiting for Fire to finish its work."

Knocking thrice, he entered the room, with 'Mina and Astral Hay following hesitantly behind. "Guardians? You have visitors," the Oracle announced, motioning the two forward.

"'Mina? What're you doing here? And why'd you bring Hay's …" Will only just caught herself in time.

"Long story short, the usual problem of 'missing files' is corrupting her hard drive, Will," 'Mina started. "And it's not just her. Irma's splitting drinks with Martin, Cornelia's regressed to Lillian's age, Taranee's so afraid of everything she can barely function, and this one, well, let's just say boy crazy. At least it's all aimed at Eric, for the moment." She gave an exasperated sigh when Astral Hay gave a happy giggle at the mention of Eric.

Guardian Hay Lin came forward and gave her Astral Drop a hard once-over. "Well, you've got her here now, and Taranee's been griping about getting out of her 'hothouse' there" and she pointed at a large structure that looked like Darth Vader's air-chamber in Star Wars V, "for the past ten minutes, so I guess there's no point in two of me going back, huh guys?" Hay gave a wave in her doppleganger's direction, and her Astral Drop, thinking she wanted to high-five her, slapped her hand before anyone could do anything. Instead of the expected clap of skin on skin, to everyone's horror the 'Drop kind of _flowed into_ Hay Lin, who only had time to give a startled "Eeeep!"

The other three Guardians rushed forward, catching her as she fainted, and Will and 'Mina looked at each other, scared. 'Mina cleared her throat. "Usually, you guys just make us, well, _them_, pop by saying A D, right? I'm the exception 'cause I'm an Altermere, and you have to do that to 'keep' me instead. So what does that mean?"

Will gave her 'sister' a thoughtful look. "When we combine, I tend to get your memories of when we're separated. You get mine too, right?" 'Mina nodded. "So I am, in effect, really keeping you."

"The same would be true with an Astral Drop, Guardians," the Oracle said. "I thought you had had occasion before now to witness that phenomena." When they all just looked at him blankly, he gave a knowing nod. "Ah. It may explain the many problems you keep encountering when calling on them. The missing things you have noticed tend to be filled in over time as they gain experience of their own, and that you keep calling up new ones instead of being able to retrieve the older ones, well …" and he waved a hand at Hay Lin, who was just coming to.

"Whoozat? Eric? Where's your hair?" she said as she sat up. As her eyes focused, Hay saw the Oracle, looking down at her with his usual kind grin. Unfortunately, her eyes came back to work before her brain could stop her mouth. "Oh! Not Eric. Still cute enough to date, though. Whaddiyou say, Cornelia?" The Oracle's grin faltered as he looked at the rest of the girls. Cornelia started waving her hands in front of her, clearly saying 'Don't look at me!'

"Yep, sounds like she's stuck on 'boy crazy', all right," Irma laughed.

"Oh, that can't be a good sign," 'Mina said, facepalming.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Twenty minutes later, they had Taranee out of her Fire chamber, and though still tender, she said she was more than ready to go back, especially after she heard about the problems with the other 'Drops.

Hay Lin's behavior had the others even more worried, if possible. She'd continued to pay compliments to the Oracle, including wheedling his name out of him by starting a round of 'the Name Game' song, and asking him to fill in the blank, because it 'just never worked right with a vowel'.

"Himerish, huh? That's such a great name for an Oracle. Hey Taranee, doesn't Himerish mean 'he who is wise about girls' in Sanskrit?" she asked, batting her eyes at him. By now, he was totally flustered, but she was refusing to let go of his arm short of personal violence. The other girls just groaned, and 'Mina started for her again. Cornelia let her get _almost_ within arms' reach, then lifted her telekinetically.

"Believe me, it's tempting, but we kinda need her alive, 'Mina." The blonde Guardian swept her hair back, debating on whether it would be worth letting Hay get mangled a little or not, then just sighed. It probably wouldn't snap her out of it, and it'd mean she actually saw more of Eric, since he'd no doubt visit her in the hospital daily. He did live on the same street.

"How are we gonna get her out of here?" Irma muttered.

"Leave it to me," Will responded. "Come on Hay-hay, if we hurry home, Eric'll probably still be at the Silver Dragon." At the mention of her waiting boyfriend, who she suddenly remembered was a _great_ kisser, Hay let go of the Oracle's sleeve.

"Well, what're we waiting for?" She ran a hand down her pigtails and tested her breath, straightening her shirt with a vengeance. (Will had changed them back at Taranee's request, in her hopes that it would a: finish healing the last sore spots like always, and b: bring Hay Lin back to sanity. So far, only the first one had come true.) At the sight of the large mud stain on one side, she gasped. "How am I gonna explain that? Ooooh, those Lurden-a-likes are _so_ getting my laundry bill!" The other girls all exchanged glances.

"_Do you think it just woke up her 'girl' side?"_ Taranee asked the others telepathically. _"She sounds an awful lot like Cornelia. Sorry,"_ she added, as the Earth Guardian's brow dropped.

"_I'll forgive you. This time. _You_ aren't among the fashion-challenged,"_ she retorted, with a glance at Will and 'Mina in their usual hoodie and jeans.

"_Hey!"_ they both started. _"Not about us right now, 'sis'," _ Will added._ "Hay's having a serious emergency here. Focus, gang."_

"Let's just make sure the others haven't gotten us in just as much trouble, first," Irma said out loud. She linked arms with Hay and beckoned the rest of W.i.t.c.h. closer. "Thanks for the hospitality, Himerish. We'll try to keep her at home 'til this blows over, but hey, with our job? No guarantees."

'Mina opened up a new fold back to the basement of the Silver Dragon, and the girls all stepped through.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Hay Lin was the first up the stairs as soon as they were back, 'Mina a close second, to see for herself the damage the other 'Drops had wreaked in her absence. If W.i.t.c.h. was her 'sister's responsibility, she had to accept that the Astral Drops were her own. Fortunately, Cornelia's was already down in the basement.

Apparently, Caleb had carried her down there after her full cup of sugar had ended up down the back of his shirt. He'd been laying in his bunk, just holding her and rocking back and forth, singing what sounded like old Meridian nursery rhymes to her. She'd zonked out within ten minutes.

Careful not to touch her duplicate, Cornelia knelt down in front of the two. "I am so sorry. I never realized what kind of torture I was capable of. Will you ever forgive me?"

"Fromise do neber do it again, and we're good," he replied, his voice muffled by Astral Cornelia's hair.

Holding her hair back with one hand, Cornelia used the other one against the wall and leaned over the 'Drop's ear. _"Sweet dreams, Astral Drop."_ When the last flickering light from her double's vanishing act had gone out, (Cornelia wasn't taking _any_ chances!) she closed the distance and kissed Caleb. "Thank you for taking such good care of her for me." She smiled sweetly. "You know, if I'd known how good a 'daddy' you were gonna prove to be, I'd have never even been _tempted_ to break up with you. A girl's gotta be crazy to let a catch like you get away." She kissed him again, and he growled and grabbed her, swinging her under his muscular frame on the cot.

"You're trying to drive me crazy, aren't you?" He gave her a weird look, stood up, and yanked his shirt off in one smooth motion, spraying sugar granules everywhere.

"Hey! Not that I mind the free show, but warn us we'll need eye protection first," Irma sputtered. Will grinned at her, shaking the sugar out of her hair.

Taranee just murmured _"Hurry up, 'Mina,"_ from her seat on the stairs while she dusted herself off. As if her voice had been a stage cue, the Altermere popped her head back into the basement doorway and hissed to them.

"_Will! Taranee! Come up and meet Nigel and her 'Drop out back. Irma, yours is headed down right after she gets out of the bathroom. She's had a LOT of soda."_ Irma clenched her fists, muttering horrible fates for Martin Tubbs. Taranee and Will headed up the stairs.

When she got to the top, Will asked 'Mina, "So, you ready to kick back and let me drive again?" She held her hand out, and was surprised when her Altermere shrank back, like it was a hissing cobra instead.

"Not yet, okay 'sis'? I gotta keep an eye on Hay still, and I want to talk to you out front after Taranee's back in one piece and can take over. Irma's still not out of the can, either."

"What's Irma got to do with this?"

"I told her 'Drop to meet me in the basement. More girl talk. And Martin heard me. So if I, that is to say, you, walk out there now, he'll wonder where she went after all … Shoot! Here comes Irma Two! Okay, go, hurry, I'll see you out front in a minute!" She started waving the two of them on while holding the basement door open so no one would see them going outside from the restaurant's front room.

"Wow, she's gotten this down to a science, huh?" Taranee asked as the two Guardians hurried outside and around to the alley towards the front. When she spotted Nigel just coming around the corner at the other end, she got the hugest grin … which slowly fell away as she spotted her Astral self next to him. The poor girl was wrapped up in her coat so much she looked like she was wearing a straitjacket, and she had the collar pulled up to just below her eyes. As she got closer, The Guardians both noticed that she was shivering, like something had scared her right out of her skin. With a pang Taranee realized that's exactly what had happened, in a certain sense. "_Will_?" Taranee started to ask.

"_Way ahead of you,"_ her leader answered to her relief. Stepping forward, Will held her arms open. "Hey, T. You okay? You look like you need a hug in the worst way." She motioned towards herself with her hands.

"Will?" Astral Taranee uttered in uncanny echo of her 'parent'. The redhead before her just nodded, as did the other Taranee, and Nigel as well, when she dared to glance his way. He gave her a gentle smile, too, and a gentle hug of his own, then nudged her towards Will. She went, grinning back at him. She loved that smile.

Will enveloped the nervous girl slowly, giving her a sympathetic pat on the back. "You've had a bad day, haven't you, T?" When the 'Drop nodded miserably against her shoulder, Will gave her an extra squeeze. "That's too bad. But we can make it all better now. How's that sound?"

"_Yes. Oh, please and thank you, yes!"_ the poor overwhelmed Astral Taranee cried into Will's jacket.

"It's okay, T. It'll all be okay. Just hold on to me." She waited until the duplicate had finally relaxed again against her, and was simply holding on because she'd said to. "Astral Drop." The trio waited through the sparkling aftereffects to fade, then Will and Nigel both gave the real Taranee hugs to rival what her 'Drop had gotten.

"Man, I never dreamt you girls had this many problems. I always thought you five were just sneaking off to goof off."

Just as Nigel was letting go of the two girls, they distinctly heard Irma screaming "Astral Drop! _Astral Drop!_ **ASTRAL DROP!**" from the basement.

"Is it safe to go back?" they heard from the back alley. Turning, Will, Nigel and Taranee started laughing when they saw Cornelia and a shivering, still-shirtless Caleb.

"Yeah, I think she got rid of her 'Drop," Nigel snorted, still laughing, "and got in a preemptive strike against the next two, as well."

"Go on back in, guys, I'll be there in a minute," Will said to Nigel and Taranee. At the Bassist's quizzical look, she just added, "'Mina wants to talk to me first." She shood them back towards the front, following more slowly behind. Spotting her Altermere waiting on one of the two chairs Matt had brought outside for Nigel and Taranee, Will plopped down in the other one with a sigh. After the day they all had had, (and she included 'Mina, if even a quarter of what she'd heard was accurate,) she deserved a couple of quiet minutes just sitting.

Still, after a while, her curiosity was stronger than her exhaustion. "Soooo … what's up, 'sis'?"

"Nu-uh, you first. What happened to Taranee?"

"You'll just know about it anyway, once we meld again," Will said, confused.

"Yeah, but it's not the same as having you tell me about it." They sat for a second in silence, then 'Mina continued. "Think of me as your own personal sounding board. I'd say shrink, but we both know how we feel about that, especially after Mrs. Irving back in Fadden Hills." The two looked at each other, and then burst out laughing.

When 'their' parents had gotten divorced, the school counselor had called Will in to 'discuss her feelings'. It wasn't anything strenuous, but Will had gotten the impression that Mrs. Irving, school counselor, was the most anti-divorce individual on the face of the planet. The woman's parents were divorced, she was divorced, (twice) and her oldest daughter from her first marriage was divorced. (None of them amicably, either.) She was hardly an unbiased listener. The girls did not have fond memories of her, or the hours that Will had spent in her office.

When they had finally settled down and could breathe again, Will gave her sister a punch to the shoulder. "You're so bad for me."

"But I'm your best friend." They sat there for another few minutes, watching the traffic start to pick up. (It still wasn't quite Five o'clock yet, despite the hectic day they'd both had.) "So?"

"One word." Will let out a sigh, dropping her head in her hands as she leaned forward. "Frost." She heard 'Mina gasp through her own covered mouth.

"Seriously? He broke out?" The two just sat there for several seconds, Will in exhaustion, 'Mina in anticipation.

"Yeah, released Crimson, recruited some of those lizard-men from the third continent, and went on a rampage in the Southern Province. Taranee was pulling one of the villagers out of a collapsed hut when Crimson caught her with a charge. Broke a couple ribs." 'Mina winced in sympathy.

"So is he still running loose out there?"

"Not anymore. We finally put him down hard. It'll be a long time before he's healed enough to even _think_ of trying to escape again. And this time, he went to Torus Filney. The high-risk level. Which reminds me, I gotta have Elyon go back to Meridian long enough to find Crimson a good home, far away from that lunatic. I hope the Browns don't mind her getting home a little late."

"Hey, in the name of a good cause, I think they may be able to make an exception on her curfew. Especially if we have Cornelia spin it." The two grinned at each other, and sat in companionable silence for another minute.

"So, what did _you_ want to talk to _me_ about?" Will asked again.

"Ah, fuhgedaboutit," 'Mina said, in her now scarily-accurate fake Bronx accent, which she practiced whenever she was 'out'. (Her sole defense was that 'everybody needed a hobby', and to help, Will broke down and watched the Sopranos for her.) "Maybe next time. Just … remember to clear your heads, next time, and this might not be that big a deal, huh?"

"But then what'll you do with your time?"

"Are you kidding? I'm gonna sit at home, watch all the movies you keep renting and returning without ever looking at, and pig out on the jar of Nutella mom keeps thinking she's hiding from us!" The two laughed themselves silly, and when Will caught her breath, she sat back, gave her 'sister' a warm smile, and winked.

"Sounds like a plan, 'sis', sounds like a plan." She held out a hand, and 'Mina grasped it, grinning back. With a sigh, her Altermere just … stopped being there, and Will felt her head fill with an extra day's worth of memories. Deep breathing like she would at the pool before a meet, she let it all filter and sort until it made sense, then stood up and walked back into the Silver Dragon. A day this bad called for something deep-fried and covered in gravy, summer swimsuit nightmares be damned.

As she slid into the booth across from Matt, she leaned over and gave him a quick peck on one cheek. "That's from 'Mina. Thanks for being so cool today." She leaned back in and kissed his other cheek. "And that one's from me. Thanks for still being here now that all the madness is over with." At his pained look, she sat back and asked, "What?"

He nodded over his shoulder. "It's not quite over."

Irma and Martin were still sitting in the other booth, and though they weren't sharing a glass anymore, they were drinking together, leaned over, and earnestly talking … and Irma wasn't swearing or screaming at him. Will felt a shiver go up her spine. Then something else registered. Or failed to, at any rate.

"Hey, 'Mina said Elyon was here, too. And where are Caleb, Cornelia, Eric, and Hay?" She looked around again. "And Taranee and Nigel?"

"Elyon went home already, babe. She left when Caleb got a shirt full of sugar, and carried Cornelia downstairs swearing he was gonna tie her up till you five got back. I thought they were still down there." He looked around. "I could have sworn Eric would stay, but I guess he went home too, 'cause he was here when I went to the bathroom, but he was gone when I came back, and Irma was just headed that way. Then I saw 'Mina by the door of the basement, and Irma came back and went downstairs with her, and then Nigel and Taranee came in, and I knew you guys were back, because her 'Drop wouldn't even look in the door." He chuckled for a minute, but then got serious, and a little sad.

"Now that was probably the saddest part of the day. She just kept getting more and more scared, and you know what finally did her in? An acorn," he said, and heard her echoing it. He looked up at her big brown eyes, just a shade away from his own, and couldn't help but fall for her all over again. "How'd you know?"

"'Mina was in Candracar, and had the Oracle check on you guys." She pursed her lips, hearing the echo of her 'sister's thoughts. "She thinks that since I'm the leader of W.i.t.c.h., it's her job to make sure the A D's are all okay. It's sweet. But that still doesn't answer where the rest of my team went …"

"Taranee and Nigel are in the kitchen," Irma supplied. "Yan came out here to bring us our refills, and mentioned the strange delivery of a single catfish filet with their seafood shipment. Yan Lin doesn't like catfish, it's not on the menu, and she didn't want to leave it in the cooler going bad or throw it out, so T said she'd cook it up for Nigel. After their day, I think he's earned it, and she deserves the alone-time with him, so don't bug 'em, W."

Will just gawped at her Water Guardian for a minute, then snapped her mouth shut. "Ooookay. I'll take your word for it." A heartbeat later, she said, "Wait a minute. How do you know …" she clammed up again, blushing and looking away. As far as Martin knew, they'd all had the same day, and the girls _hadn't_ been off saving another planet while their psychic doppelgangers hung out with him and the other guys. _"I hate leading a double life. The conversations alone make it a pain in the ..'_

"_Hey, Will, CHILL! You're gonna pop a vein or something."_ Irma's unmistakable voice sounded clearly in her head. But how ..? She made a surreptitious flick of her eyes toward the kitchen, and raised an eyebrow. Irma just shook her head.

"_Nope, all me, babe. Did ya forget I got p-si-onics too?"_ she waggled her eyebrows, so Will knew she was mispronouncing on purpose for the fun of it. _"If I'm not actually TELLING someone what to do, I can just 'talk' to anyone. And the whole 'day they've had' thing?"_ Irma hung her head for a minute. _"Totally my fault. AND an accident. Or both. I got 'Mina to send my Drop downstairs, and I wanted to read her the riot act before I made her go away, because, c'mon, Martin. Anyway, I was ranting pretty bad, and I turned around so I didn't have to see her face anymore, 'cause she already looked pretty upset, but I still thought I needed to yell. _

"_Caleb and Corny went upstairs to clean the sugar out of his cloths - they're probably still there, actually – and she came the rest of the way down, crying, and she … Will, she hit me."_ Irma's eyes looked haunted. Will could relate, after the death-duel she'd gotten into with 'Mina originally. Before she ended up down her worst memory lane, Irma continued. _"Now I've got this jumbled up mess in my head of us fighting Frost and his new lizard-lurdens, a full day of school that I actually did all the work in already, and a weird pseudo-date with Martin, and then another fight, with _myself._ And I won. But I lost. And now I'm mad at myself for yelling at me about dating a guy I just had a great day with, and I'm sorry I kicked my ass about it ... That's when I started screaming A D._"

Just then, Martin hit bottom on his soda, and Will got an idea. Or 'Mina did. Even she wasn't sure sometimes, now. "Hey, Martin. How was your day?"

"Huh? Oh, hi Will! Just super! I've been here all afternoon, with my best gal, and all her friends, and '_BUUUURRRRP_!"

Matt whirled completely around in his side of their booth, Irma fell out of hers, Nigel, Taranee and Yan all popped out of the kitchen, and Caleb and Cornelia poked their heads over the railing upstairs. "What in the name of Candracar was _THAT?"_ Cornelia squeaked.

"Sounded like Aldarn after a binge," Caleb added.

"'Scuse me," Martin said quietly. At least he tried to. The 'E' at the end of his 'me' got stretched out for almost seven seconds, and ranged up and down almost a whole musical octave.

"Damn," Nigel uttered, awestruck. Then he looked over at Matt. "Did you get that? Tell me you got that, Matt!" When his lead guitarist just hung his head, shaking in silent laughter, Nigel almost fell down. "Aw, man! The perfect sound byte! Never mind our songs, man. With that one, we'd have hit Youtube GOLD!" Taranee just gave him a look, and went back to her cooking.

"What's Youtube?" Caleb asked, baffled.

Cornelia lost it. "I'll … show … you … later!" she managed to tell him between gales of laughter and gasps for air. Will started laughing, too

"Don't leave yet, I don't think he's finished," Irma said, reaching up and poking Martin quickly in the stomach. He let out a small burp that sounded like a steam whistle, because he tried to keep his teeth clenched in front of it. Will giggled, still gasping for air, and rooted around on her backpack until she found her phone.

"Knock yourself out," she said to Matt, slapping it into his hand, then running for the bathroom. She had laughed so hard she had to pee.

By the time she came out, Martin was headed in. He'd drank so much soda, his 'eyes were floating', as he put it. The boys had recorded seven burps, but none were as spectacular as those first two, and now Nigel was back in the kitchen, playing them back for Taranee, just to hear her laugh. She failed to disappoint, and when Irma got up the courage to ask her why she wasn't disgusted, Taranee tattled that her brother Peter and her dad had contests every Thanksgiving. She giggled as she added that none of theirs beat those first two from Martin, either.

"Catfish in Creamy Teriyaki?" Nigel asked, after he got the first bite. "Interesting, T." He leaned over and gave her a sticky kiss on the cheek in thanks.

"It was the closest I could get to a Remoulade," she said, blushing. At everybody else's confused looks, she added. "My dad's a big Creole fan."

Will looked around again. "Where's Hay Lin?" It kept coming up to bother her. Or 'Mina. Right after a rejoining, her brain was still a little separated, and the occasional floating thought from one would interrupt the other. Matt hadn't known, Irma hadn't known, Nigel and Taranee and Cornelia and Caleb had all been outside when Hay had disappeared … that left Yan Lin.

"Yan? Where's Hay-hay?" Will asked, walking into the kitchen.

"She took off right after you five got back, the little rapscallion, and lifted my pineapple glaze on her way. When I catch her … that stuff takes a half hour to blend just right, and then has to chill overnight to set. I was setting it aside for tonight's party."

"What's the party for?" Will had a sudden sinking feeling.

"Believe it or not the senior board of trustees for Sheffield Institute, after finding out about my 'celebrity chef-for-a-day' stint in the cafeteria, has decided they want to come here for their annual board members' banquet." Yan beamed proudly at the four kids she could see. "I wanted to give them the whole shebang, the full menu choice, Dim Sum style. But my three best recipes all call for that glaze, and now I'm out."

"You know, I bet if you put some more together, we can get it to set for you, Guardian-style," Taranee said, with a sparkle of fire in her eye. "But for that, we'll need her anyway, so I'll see if I can find … oh my." The Fire-mistress turned and glared at Will and Irma. "You both know what kind of state she was in when we got back, right?" At their miserable nods, she said, "She didn't go far with that glaze, and Eric didn't go home."

Yan Lin dropped the whisk she was pulling out of a drawer, and the kitchen had gone so quiet that the resounding _'clang!'_ was audible out in the dining area. Martin and Matt burst in, both crying "What's wrong?"

"Hay Lin," Will began, the nameless worry that 'Mina had been screaming from the back of her skull finally, terribly making sense, "is upstairs with Eric."

"Well yeah," said Martin. "She came back in from the basement, showed him a jar of yellow stuff, whispered something in his ear, and they went up then." When everyone else glared at him, he stepped back quickly. "I thought everybody knew."

There was a mad scramble as Will, Irma, Taranee, and their boyfriends raced for the stairs, Yan close behind.


	2. Chapter 2

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard disclaimer applies)

_**Author's Note!**_ This work of Fanfiction is now rated M, for serious adult situations and the resulting consequences. While I have been able to skirt the issue in the first chapter, as of now, I can no longer in good conscience continue this story without making some necessary scenes less than graphically explicit. Fair warning given, my heartfelt apologies to those who feel they cannot go on to read such works, and a glad welcome to those who will unflinchingly follow as Hay Lin continues her perilous adventure. Please enjoy, A J.

Chapter 2:

"Closer"

Eric Lyndon was in heaven.

He was sprawled on his back on Hay Lin's bed, some old Richie Cole ballads he vaguely remembered giving her for her birthday playing in the background. Hay was sitting on his legs, her tiny hands running up and down his well-developed chest under his shirt. He _had_ to remember to thank his grandfather for getting him hooked on jazz and soul, without which his saxophone lessons, and the resulting abdominal musculature, wouldn't exist. He knew Hay Lin wasn't one of those shallow girls that went for muscle-men or pretty boys, and had actually picked him for the artistic souls they had in common. But as a fifteen-year-old boy, with the cutest, hottest girl in his grade hovering inches away from every inch of him that wanted to get closer to every inch of her, he couldn't care less.

He traced one hand gently along the sliver of her golden skin just visible in the space between her tiny-tee and her low-slung jeans. He could tell she wasn't wearing anything under the tight top, and his mouth went dry as she leaned forward. Her unpainted lips parted with a sigh, her smile as happy as it was … hungry. It was the only word he could think of for the look that passed through her eyes at that moment, emphasized by the appearance of her tongue. The tiny coral-pink appendage peeked out one corner of her mouth, ran softly across her just-visible teeth, and slowly … _slowly …_ hid itself away in her exquisite body again, with another of her soft sighs as fanfare. He gulped, panting.

Hay grinned wider as she ran her hands further up his shirt, slowly pushing it off of his toned body. He blushed as she pulled the maroon top over his head, forcing his arms briefly away from her waist and up as she ripped the garment off him aggressively. Leaned completely over him, she whispered _"Glorious."_ He brought his hands back down to run through her hair as she descended to kiss him, their breath mingling as their pulses quickened.

Plucking at the tiny ribbons holding her hair up, he sighed as they surrendered and a silky ebony cascade fell around him, blocking out the rest of the universe. She giggled as she sat back up, and his hands slid from her head to the middle of her shirt, just under the swell of her still-barely-there adolescent breasts. He vaguely registered that there suddenly seemed to be _more_, well … _there,_ but the next second, her shirt was … _gone_, and he spent several seconds wondering why his vision was blurring. Then she leaned back down, her breasts still hidden by her fall of hair, and murmured, _"_Breathe_, qingren,"_ and he gasped. (Chinese: _qingren = lover_.)

Her sultry giggle was music to his ears. Seizing his hands, she settled them right over her tiny breasts, and gasped when the superheated palms came into contact with her virgin nipples. Eric felt her pulse start to race under his thumbs, which barely missed each other on her sternum. Hay sighed low and long, and Eric felt the gentle pulse of air brush down his hairline and over his face towards his lips. Then their eyes met before closing as she bent down into another kiss.

Moving incrementally up his legs, Hay heard his breath quicken and felt the whole area she was squirming over heat up and …_whoa._ They'd had sex-ed; she knew all the technical jargon and anatomical descriptions, but nothing she'd read or looked at had made her aware of the … _size_ … a man's endowment could become. Still separated from her by several layers of clothes, she was aware of his gift regardless. _'Too soon still …'_ she thought, with an internal pout.

She tried not to move her lower half any further, while leaning off to the side and grabbing the jar of her grandma's special pineapple glaze. With a wink, she unscrewed the top, and slowly drizzled a line of the sweet yellow sauce across Eric's chest from one of his exposed nipples to the other. Setting the jar back on her nightstand, she leaned in, and gently started to lick the gooey glaze back up.

She knew what just the gentle pressure of his hands was doing to her nipples, and was determined to find out if his were just as sensitive. For maximum effect, she started at the center of the line of syrup, and she slowly cleaned the whole sticky mass back off, moving outward in both directions one lick at a time. It fell into a pattern: heartbeat, lick, breath, repeat. Her progress was punctuated by the occasional gasp Eric emitted, and the slow roll both their hips started to perform against each other. By the time she had gotten to the first nipple, he was barely breathing, and had lifted himself on his elbows to be able to watch her lick away that last sweet inch of glaze. Just before her tongue darted out to finish it off, she glanced up, and their eyes met.

His brown eyes begged, a sweet puppy looking for a special tummy-rub from his master. She gloried in the heady feel of the emotions flowing between them, then gave him a saucy wink and a wicked smirk, just as she had always seen Cornelia and Will doing with their boyfriends. Then she ever so slowly, never breaking eye contact, laved up the last dollop over his right nipple.

He fell back with a soft cry, his hands leaving her breasts to fold her tight against him as he started to shake, and she could feel the superheated organ centered between them pulse with a primal rhythm. Eric started muttering _"M-my god, oh my god, oh my god, …"_ over and over. Hay fought to _not_ giggle as she rode the wave of her boyfriend's first externally-stimulated orgasm. She wasn't new to the theoretical principals of sex. Certainly her ears hadn't been virgin for years with Irma as a best friend, and even if that lifelong association hadn't spoiled her for a life of learning only from personal experience, her Air gifts had been bringing her whispered accounts of others' encounters for most of a year of high school now. However, this was her first one-on-one with the practical. She couldn't have been happier with her progress.

Just as his breathing slowed back down, she swept across his chest and latched onto his other nipple, sucking it clean as well as he gasped anew, and held on to her shoulder-blades like he'd die if she ever set him free. She could empathize; her skin in those few places he'd touched was feverish from the attention, and chilled as soon as his hands moved to somewhere else ... like just then as he brought his fingers raking down her back to hold her squirming hips against his. The sudden pressure of his heated center against hers made her gasp out loud, as she followed him over the edge. Hay's eyes watered with the waves of pleasure, and she found herself thinking _'Clothes be damned. If it feels this good with four layers between us …'_

Noise outside her room made her head snap up, and with a primitive hiss, she grabbed both their shirts and pulled the poor gasping wreck of a boyfriend below her into a sitting position. _'Thank Candracar for learning to think quick in hardship,'_ she thought, and giggled at her own pun. Yanking their missing garments back over their heads as she spun in his lap, she leaned back against Eric and grabbed one of his just-emerging hands.

"_Braid my hair,"_ she whispered under cover of the approaching herd of perfectly audible Guardians and boyfriends, tangling their mingled fingers into her hip-length flow. She tugged her shirt hem the rest of the way down while grabbing the jar of glaze back up, just as her bedroom door swung open to reveal all her friends and her grandmother, each of them looking as if they fully expected to find the pair _in flagrante' delicto._

W.i.t.c., Matt, Martin, Nigel, Caleb, and Yan Lin all blinked in shock at the romantic picture of Hay snuggled up against her boyfriend, sharing dollops of pineapple glaze off a chopstick with him as Eric slowly braided her hair.

"What is it, grandma ..? Oh! Did you need this sauce back?" Hay asked innocently, holding the jar out. "I hope we didn't eat too much," she continued, and Eric gave the elderly Chinese woman a guilty smile, as if to say _'Go ahead and blame me, she's just too cute.'_ He gave the top of Hay Lin's head a kiss. She blushed and ducked her head with a giggle, then gave her a hair a delicate swish. "Don't forget the other bit by my ear," she murmured. "It's tickling me."

"_Ahhhh … Hay Lin?"_ Taranee started telepathically. _"Were you and Eric … just ..?"_ She jiggled her eyebrows, and blushed at the _thought_ of the thought.

"_Taranee! How could you even _suspect?" Hay gave her a one-eyed glare of injured dignity. _"After all, aren't we operating under a blanket 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy? I mean, we're _all_ dating, now. I think we should be able to keep that much private, don't you?"_

"_I … I guess …"_ the bewildered Fire Guardian answered, as Yan swept forward, snatched her glaze back, and gave her granddaughter an accusatory once-over.

"I need you downstairs in uniform, young lady. Tonight's for _your_ schoolboard, after all." Yan turned to the others still clustered in the doorway. "Could I impose on a few of you willing and able to stay and help, too? I think we've got a couple more of our uniforms around here, and then there's dish duty, of course … Dim Sum is such an extravagance, but I just can't resist the opportunity."

Matt cleared his throat. "I'm sure we're all willing, Yan Lin, but I think we've got a few here that might not be up to the able. But you don't suppose your guests would be adverse to some live music?" He traded grins with Nigel, and gave a surprised Eric a questioning glance. "You got your sax with you, man?" The dusky-skinned teen nodded.

Hay turned to look at her boyfriend, careful not to disrupt his half-done handiwork on her hair. "Ooooh! Could you stay? We'd get to spend the whole night together!"

"I just need to call home, and ask Grandpa first. Which means I've got to finish this," Eric said, and gave her hair a playful tug. She beamed back at him.

"Hmm, you know what? I'll call myself," Yan said. "I could use Mira's help in the kitchen as well tonight, with Joan and Chen out of town." She made her way back to the phone in the upstairs hallway to do just that. "Hurry up, Hay-hay. We still need to find out who the spare uniforms will fit … Ah, hello, Mira! Yes, yes, he's still here. Oh, well, that's what I'm calling about … yes, yes, _erzi_ and _nuer_ both … oh, them too? Heh, well, I guess if they go in on the same time share, they'll know who they'll be taking turns with." A few minutes more of pleasantries followed.

Taranee gave Hay and Eric both a funny look. "Your guys' parents, too?" She glanced at each of the other teens, curious. "Does anybody _not_ have a parent going to that open house in Fadden Hills?" Nigel and Irma each said _"Me,"_ looking around at the others sheepishly. "Oh, this is just sad," Taranee continued, looking around.

"You think?" Cornelia gave a headshake. "Her dad organized it," she said, pointing at Will. "My dad is selling it," she continued, looking at all the others, "and apparently, they wrangled most of the rest of them at the Easter Egg Hunt."

"There! All set!" Eric hopped up, pulling Hay Lin to her feet. She twirled around, her new braid swinging up with her momentum and circling behind her like a kite tail. The glittering red bow Eric had tied at the end was, in her words …

"Perfect! It just matches my uniform! Where did you find it?" Everyone chuckled when he just pointed mutely at the conspicuous empty space in her rainbow of hair ties decorating the neck of the lamp on her nightstand. "Oh! And hey, there are my matching emerald scrunchies! I've been looking for them since St. Patrick's Day!" Irma facepalmed, and the others just laughed louder. "What? Now I can wear them tomorrow," she added, skipped over to her closet, and pulled out a green mini-kimono top and black peasant pants. "With this!"

The dramatic presentation got the other girls to stop chuckling and '_Ooooh'_ in appreciation. Hay sketched a brief bow, put the outfit away, and took out her Silver Dragon uniform. She lay it on her bed, reached back in, and tugged out an extra, and turned back to her grandmother, who was just looking back into the room. "Mom must still have the other one, Grandma, I've only got Irma's old one here."

"_Here's hoping it still fits,"_ Irma muttered, looking down at her ever-expanding bustline. She'd added yet another cup size this year, much to her chagrin, and her father's panic.

"Alright, I'll check. Mira's on her way to help, so that leaves the rest of you who are staying as bussers and dishwashers … who else _is_ staying?" When all the teens raised their hands with enthusiasm, the Chinese elder laughed. "Okay, and how many have to make a phone call first, still?" Will, Martin and Irma were now the only ones left with their hands up, and Yan smiled. "Well, we have three lines in the building, so get to it, and let's get to work, gang."

Ducking into her son's room, Yan found the third uniform and brought it out. A quick size check showed that their third waitress for the evening was going to be Taranee.

"Are you sure I can't just help out in the kitchen? I don't do that well in crowds," the young Af. Am. girl groaned, reminding the teens of her 'Drop.

"Tell you what, Taranee, I'll keep you in reserve, and you'll be in charge of the _hot_ dishes," Yan Lin said with her 'Grandma's Grin'. The girls all grinned at the inside joke, and Irma, Taranee and Hay ducked into the Asian girl's room to change.

"Hey Yan Lin, do you want a full band for the night, or just us three?" Nigel asked as she hurried down to the kitchen with her prized glaze. After a pause she asked what they would want as a fee. He and Matt grinned. "Heck, keep us hydrated, let us eat at some point, and we'll throw down a hat for tips. Joel and Dom are more into getting heard than getting paid, so they'll probably be over and set up before I can finish telling them the address. Sound like a deal to you, Eric?" At his enthusiastic agreement, the trio used the last free phone (Will had her cell, after all,) so they could call the rest of 'Wreck 55'.

_w.i.t.c.h._

The Dim Sum dinner was a hit. After watching the extroverted Irma and the experienced Hay go about the waitressing business, Taranee battened down the hatches over her nervousness. She was an instant success with one table of especially bawdy blue-haired matrons. The three little old ladies took it in turns to slowly tease the normally shy young girl out of her shell, and by the end of the evening, she was heard responding to their saucier comments in kind, albeit low-voiced and rather breathless, with much blushing and giggling.

Not much later, one of the three matrons was seen leaving on the arm of old Marshall Sheffield, instead of in the company of her two table-mates, whom she'd arrived with. Taranee slyly admitted to the others that 'Bawdy Maude' had wheedled the young Fire Guardian into giving him her phone number. He'd apparently extended a much better invitation, much to the cackling delight of her former companions, and the giggling Guardians.

Martin and Caleb finished the final dish round up, much to Will and Cornelia's rebellious complaints. Caleb steered Cornelia into a chair and started rubbing her shoulders, and her loud sigh made Will glare murderously.

"Hey, all you've had to do is move the bowls back and forth for the cooks," she complained. "I'm the one stuck with the dish-pan hands, here."

"Aw, poor Willie," Hay Lin sympathized. She and Taranee came over to help her out with the load of pans Yan and Mira were finally done with. Irma took over drying duty, but after a couple minutes, she plunked one down extra-hard so it clanged against its neighbor.

"_AARRGGHH!!"_ Even her telepathic voice sounded exhausted. "_Will, I propose power practice … _right … _NOW."_ For emphasis, she threw the towel she'd been wielding slower and slower over her shoulder, picked up her next two 'victims', and with a single flick, willed all the water off both pans. She stared back challengingly at their leader.

"_What do we do with Eric and Martin?"_ Hay countered. _"And Joel and Dominic?"_ She whirled in place with the pair of bowls Taranee handed her, drying them with a surreptitious wind gust and a giggle.

"_Hey Irma, why don't you _suggest_ that the band go ahead and pack up?"_ Cornelia sent, standing back up. Turning to Caleb, she gave him a kiss to thank him for the minute's massage. "Can you peel Martin away from Irmy and take care of the sweeping, love?" She batted her eyelashes and gave him a wink. He nodded back with a grin; he'd been included in the Guardian's silent exchange through Cornelia's touch.

"_I'll_ tell the boys," Will amended, flicking soapy water at the others. "Anything to get away from that sink," she muttered with a grin. Nodding at Yan and Mira, she slipped out after Caleb and Martin.

She found the boys circled around a table, sipping oolong tea from the pot Taranee had brought them earlier. Sliding into the last seat with a groan, she grasped Matt's free hand. "Hey, handsome. Come here often?" Will asked with a tired grin. Joel and the others chuckled as their lead singer smiled back, cheered beyond measure by her attention. _"Irma and the others decided to take care of the last of the dishes Guardian-style,"_ she projected to him through their physical connection. _"I'm here to distract the boys by getting them to 'pack up early',"_ she added with a nod of her head towards the band's instruments.

"_I've got a better idea,"_ Matt countered, and leaned over to plant a kiss on her cheek, just next to her showing dimple. Letting her hand go, he went back to his guitar, and started plucking out 'The Will to Love' quietly. "Hey Nigel … can you give me some harmony?" He strummed the opening bars of the ballad again. Grinning, his bandmates jumped up from their seats to accompany him in his sonnet.

As 'Wreck 55' started playing her song, Will sat back with a happy smile, then glanced over at Eric. "Not joining them?"

"Matt never left any room in this one for a sax accompaniment," he answered with a knowing smirk. "But it's given me some _great _ideas for something for Hay's birthday." The pair traded grins, and Eric stood up, grabbing her hand. "I'll bet this tune is great for dancing to, though." He whirled her around once, and she laughed.

"Hey, trying to steal my girl while my hands are busy?" Matt asked between choruses. Nigel laughed as Eric and Will spun closer.

"Nah, just think of it as 'audience participation'," Eric responded, leaning Will across so she could share a quick kiss with Matt before the next verse. The two whirled off as 'The Will to Love' continued, circling around Martin and Caleb as they swept the floor and put up the chairs. With a resigned chuckle, Will gave Eric a thankful squeeze, and the pair separated to help with the seats.

Working their way across the room, they stacked chairs on top of the tables the two bussers had cleared earlier, until Will was back by the band's table as they finished the song. Stealing a sip from Matt's cup of tea, she turned around just in time to see Eric, a chair hanging from one slack hand as he was staring through the window of the door leading back to the kitchen. "Oh no …" Will started back his way, ignoring Matt and Nigel's worried _"What?"_s in her haste. _"I hope you guys are done," _she sent to the other four Guardians.

"_Just a last pair of pans, Oh Great Leader,"_ Irma 'pathed back with a mental sigh. _"Cornelia's even putting the stuff away as we go …"_ The Water Guardian cut off as she turned in the direction of the door, only to catch a glimpse of Eric Lyndon's face as he fainted. "Uh, Hay-hay? I think the cat's out of the bag …"

Taranee and the other girls gasped. Will had used the same phrase a couple months ago, when Nigel had found out about the Guardians. It had been almost a week before he'd talked to them civilly, and nearly a month before Taranee could make him sit still long enough to hear the whole explanation. Since then he had proved to be indispensible as a discreet ally; years of sneaking around with Uriah had actually paid off, he liked to joke.

Now it looked like they might be going through the same thing with Hay's boyfriend. Will was beside him in seconds, catching him with Quintessence speed just before his head met the linoleum flooring. _"Irma! Get Martin OUT of here!"_ At the Water Guardian's shocked query, she continued. _"I don't know, but one new person 'in the know' is bad enough for one night! Just … walk him home, or something!"_ Matt, Joel and the rest of the band circled around her and Eric worriedly, attracted by the clatter of the chair the sax player had dropped. "Guys, help me get him to a booth."

The band lifted Eric slowly and carried him over to the nearest booth, where Dom gave him a careful once-over. (His mom was a nurse at St. Nicholas Hospital.) "He's fine," the keyboard player said. "You musta just got there in time, Will." As he turned to face her, all of 'Wreck 55' found themselves summarily pushed out of the way by a frightened Oriental girl on a mission.

"Eric? Oh, Eric …" Hay was practically sobbing as she slithered into the space between bench and table, and Dom climbed up and over the Formica counter to get out of her way. Will became conscious of the other Guardians clustered behind her at the far corner of the booth, and gave Irma a significant nod towards Martin, then gave Cornelia a similar nudge in Caleb's direction.

Taking the hint, Cornelia swept her arms out and caught hold of Irma and Caleb's sleeves. "I think that Mrs. Lin can handle this. Why don't we get out of the way, you guys." She tugged her friends in the direction of the kitchen long enough to grab her purse and Irma's backpack, and stalling long enough for Irma to wrangle a confused Martin, resolutely marched the four of them out with a "See you all in school tomorrow!"

"Hey guys, maybe we ought to clear out, too," Nigel told the rest of the band. "Come on, I'll help you get your drums packed, Joel."

"But what about ..?" Dom started, waving back at Eric, who was just waking. Nigel and Matt shared a scared glance.

"Nonsense, boys," Mira interrupted. "This is nothing we can't take care of. Go on, before your families start to worry. Eric will be fine," she continued, reaching over and helping the young sax player sit up. Hay squealed his name in relief, and almost knocked him back out with the force of her hug.

"Yeah, I think we ought to get our stuff back in your van, man," Matt added, giving Joel an elbow-shot. "We've got that gig over at your cousin's this weekend, still, so we may as well have it all packed and ready, huh?"

"I guess …" the other half of 'Wreck 55' murmured uncertainly.

"We'll help too, right T?" Will said, giving her best friend a wink. Taranee agreed hurriedly, anxious to get the last two boys away before Eric became coherent enough to spill any beans.

The three Lin women bustled Eric into the kitchen, blathering on about herbal headache remedies and first aid cooking, and the band set off to get their equipment broken down and stowed in Joel's beat-up seventh-hand van.

As soon as they were through the door, Yan had Hay throw up a sound-wall, a layer of solid air that would act to echo back any noise made in the kitchen instead of letting it pass from the room. Eric rounded on her even as she finished.

"What the H E double-hockey sticks, Hay-hay? What's going on? What're you girls mixed up with?" Yan and Mira stood on either side of her as she faced him nervously. She hoped she could calm him down _way_ quicker than they had Nigel.

"Tell us what you saw, first," Mira started. The determined look on her face made him gulp.

"Uh, well, I saw flying dishes, mostly," he stuttered. Hay nodded encouragingly, a small smile on her glittering ruby lips. He honestly couldn't remember when she'd put on make-up earlier, but she must have at some point. "You and Irma kept waving your hands in the air, and the dishes would give off little steam-clouds before they went flying into the cupboards." He returned her smile, and hers widened, showing a trace of red on her teeth, too.

He almost laughed, thinking she'd managed to get lipstick on her teeth, when he noticed a tiny trickle of crimson slowly coursing down her chin, from a dark line in her bottom lip. Eric stepped towards Hay, suddenly frightened. _She'd bitten her lip, worried about him,_ he realized. "Hay? Just tell me what's going on." As her grin faltered, he reached out and grabbed one of her hands. "Please?"

She glanced at Yan and Mira both briefly, then sighed, and he felt a gust of wind flow up and past him. "Okay, here goes. The day after Halloween when we were thirteen, the girls and I became magical superheroes. Powered by the elements, we are the Guardians of the Infinite Dimensions. I'm the Air Guardian, so you know, just like my Grandma was. We protect Earth and other worlds from evil magicians who want to conquer or destroy them. And we can clean a kitchen like there's no tomorrow!" She said the last with a renewed grin, and grabbed his hands with her other, as well.

Taking a deep breath, she continued. "We also have the ability to make magical duplicates of ourselves, when we need to go help people without anyone _knowing_ we've left. When you guys thought we were all acting silly earlier?" She waited until he'd thought it through, and nodded. "That was our doubles. See, there's this little glitch nobody warned us about, where they don't learn anything if we don't reabsorb them, and today the silliness was just that much worse 'cause we conjured them in a hurry and they kinda got these 'sticky thoughts', like mental post-its for 'this is important!' Only the important thoughts were mostly us worried about you guys and Corny telling us she wasn't too serious and Taranee scared she wouldn't be okay, 'cause we knew we were gonna have to fight this guy we hate named Frost who's really mean, especially to her, and then Will's double told us that ours were being stupider than normal and we came back to fix 'em and we worked for the party and that's everything!" She breathed deeply, her billion-megawatt smile dazzling him all over again, until he saw the drop of blood still on her chin.

Pulling her into a strangling hug, Eric almost cried out. Yan and Mira both started forward, but Hay's whispered _"I'm fine, it's okay,"_ murmured too low for Eric to hear, made them step back again. Holding her back at arms' length, he shook her.

"You scared me today, Hay-hay," he said, reaching up with one thumb to wipe away the errant droplet of blood. "You … no, I'll admit it. I was more than scared. I was totally freaked out! But what scared me more was that you thought you couldn't tell me. You can tell me _anything,_ you know that." He pulled her back into his arms.

"Actually, we're not _supposed_ to tell anybody," Hay giggled into his ear. "Our bosses in Candracar think it'll be safer if nobody knows who we are. You know, like with Superman and Lois Lane, how she's always getting in trouble and he's always having to save her. Well, think how much more trouble she'd have if people _knew_ she was Superman's wife. She'd be kidnapped on an hourly basis! Well I don't want that to happen to you or my family, so of course I didn't tell anybody."

Eric just stood there for a moment, holding her as he mulled that over. "Well I'm glad for that, that's for sure, and don't worry; nobody else'll hear it from me, Hay." Then another thought occurred to him. "If you guys aren't supposed to tell anyone, then what's up with Caleb, Elyon and Matt? They sure seemed to know what was going on today, and … now that I think about it, Nigel wasn't freaking out over Taranee's freaking out, either …" He glared at her, waiting for the next explanation.

Hay glanced back at her two grandmas, and Yan gave a resigned nod while Mira uttered, _"It won't hurt anything to tell him now. Just don't tell him _everything," in a voice so low only her fellow Air Guardians could hear.

"Caleb, Elyon, and Matt are part of the team, _qingren_. And Nigel … well, Nigel found out about us the same way you did a couple months ago. Well, not the _same_ way, but near enough. We were trying to seal up a portal this icky wizard named Lemagrag opened from a dimension called Learza, 'cause he wanted to invade Earth, (I think for gold, or maybe pizza,) with an army of these ugly blue goblin-like things he called Frums, and we were pounding them back through their portal, which was in the old warehouse behind the amusement park, and Taranee forgot that Nigel was gonna meet her for their date at the park gate, and when she didn't show up, he started walking around the park towards her house, which is past the warehouse in that sub, and he heard our battle as he went past, and he looked in the warehouse, and … well …" Hay shrugged.

Eric shook his head at her, a slow smile on his lips. "Don't ever change, Hay Lin. I don't think I could bear it if you weren't always this adorable." He pulled her in for a quick, chaste kiss, which transformed without warning as soon as their lips met. Suddenly, Hay had her fingers buried in his hair, pulling him down towards her, and his arms slowly wrapped around her waist as they devoured each other's mouths.

Yan Lin, belatedly remembering what her granddaughter had said about the fixation the Astral Drops had had for their boyfriends, suddenly remembered some of the hard-won lessons of old. Mira apparently had the same thoughts, as the two hastily separated their respective kissing kids, who both started blushing furiously as soon as they were parted.

"I don't know what that was, but you two obviously need to spend some time apart now," Mira started to say. "It's late, and you two both have school still tomorrow, so I guess we better get going. Goodnight, Yanni, Hay-hay."

"Goodnight, Mira," Yan said, watching her 'sister' escort Eric out the back door and back towards the Observatory, where the saxophone player and his family lived. It had been a little over six months since Mira had taken her relationship with Eric's grandfather, astronomer Zachary Lyndon, that next step further and moved in with him. Now the two youngsters were apparently starting to take _their_ romance up a notch, too. Turning back to her granddaughter, the former Air Guardian raised her eyebrows in a silent question.

"Oh, gods, Grandma, please don't look at me like that! I mean, we're teenagers, right? I … I just couldn't help myself. Besides, he's a really good kisser …"

"Oi vey," Yan Lin muttered, the inadvertent Yiddish making her think of her old teammate, Halinor.

Hay giggled, and looked down at her uniform top. It was now spotted with at least three sauces she could name, and had a couple dried noodles mysteriously added to the decorative stitching around the bottom hem. Suspecting Irma, she broke the noodle out, and conjured a bit of wind to blow the bits into the nearest trashcan. "I'm gonna get changed out of this, Grandma. Just have Irma and Taranee put theirs in the washing machine with it, and I'll wash 'em … oh, pooh. Irma wore hers home, didn't she?"

Yan nodded distractedly, busy surveying the kitchen to see what else still needed to be taken care of tonight. The girls really had outdone themselves, she concluded, noting that the only things still left out were the seasonings she and Mira had used for the final round of desserts and … "Hay Lin! Quick, take these to the boys, before they leave!" Yan swept forward and gathered up the four take-out cartons she'd promised to save for the band, one quart of each boy's favorite dish. She'd asked them for preferences as they arrived, and had prepared them as the end of the Dim Sum banquet had approached, so they were still nice and hot.

"On it, Grandma!" Hay sang, as she deftly slid fingers into the little wire handles on the four cartons, and swooped out the door, her once-neat braid now a snaking ribbon of flyaway strands all fighting to escape the bright red bow. Her Air-wall popped audibly as she breezed through it.

Taranee and Will were wrapped around their half of the band, saying reluctant goodbyes, while Joel and Dom gave wolf-whistles. "Hey, you guys!" Hay belted out, gaining everybody's attention. She waggled the four cartons. "Last call, to go!" she continued with a grin. "Grandma even labeled 'em!" She handed Dom and Joel their Szechwan Almond Boneless and Sweet & Sour Pork dinners, and gave them each a surprise kiss. "Thanks for the help tonight, you guys," she said, digging out a pair of fortune cookies for them from her mini-apron. With one of her megawatt smiles, she turned and bounded over to Matt, Nigel, Taranee, and Will.

"Someone's in an 'up' mood," Nigel laughed, as she handed him his carton of steamed pork pouches, the food traditionally mislabeled as Dim Sum in most oriental banquet halls. Hay pulled him and Taranee both into a breath-stealing hug, and kissed Nigel as well. Handing him a fortune cookie, she whirled around to face Matt and Will.

"I'll say," Taranee agreed, watching bemusedly as Hay gave the other pair the same treatment, and laughed along with the others when Hay kissed Will _and_ Matt.

"_That one's for 'Mina," _Hay whispered in Will's ear, giggling, before she let the two go. Joel and Dom's wolf-whistles resumed, as Will and Matt's cheeks both turned as red as Will's hair.

"_Hey Will, is there something 'Mina's not telling us?"_ Matt asked telepathically. One thing their powers were _really_ great for was private conversations. Will could only shake her head, as confused as him.

"Don't forget to throw your uniform in the washer, T," Hay Lin said as she spun a couple times in the walkway, eyes shut and head thrown back in simple pleasure at the feel of the night wind blowing past her. The others all watched bemusedly as she fairly skipped back into the restaurant, whistling tunelessly.

"God forbid that girl ever tries drugs," Dom uttered. "She's high enough on life as it is." Joel snickered as he climbed in and started the van up.

The two remaining Guardians both gave him big smiles and said "You have no idea," simultaneously, then broke down in helpless giggles when Taranee added "JINX!"

"On that note …" Nigel murmured. He spun Taranee back around in his arms to give her a proper goodbye kiss, and with a wave, had clambered into the van with Dom before her cheeks could cool down enough for her to get angry.

"That … that … FINK!" she cried, but her eyes were glistening, and her blush refused to die down. After she watched the van until it had turned a corner several blocks down, she meandered into the Silver Dragon behind Hay, working on the tiny buttons holding the uniform closed at her neck. Will saw her glance one more time in the direction the van had departed, and couldn't help echoing the grin she saw lighting up Taranee's features.

Matt gave Will a long lingering kiss once they were finally alone. "I'll say this about Hay," he murmured against her lips with a grin. "What she lacks in finesse, she certainly makes up for in enthusiasm."

"Beast!" Will chuckled, giving his abdomen a tight hug. "Come on, let's get our school stuff, and walk each other home." As she turned to lead him back inside, she bumped into his take-out carton, and her eyes started to water from the peppery scent coming out of it. "What'd you get for dinner? It smells positively lethal."

Matt laughed at her, remembering her fondness for mega-sweet over spicy of any kind. "Thai Cashew Shrimp," he replied, with a shrug. "Hadn't had it in a while, and wanted some to take home. Besides," he added, with a smirk. "The spicy dishes are the only ones I can keep away from Mister Kor Huggles, your food-vacuum of a dormouse."

"I _did_ warn you," Will laughed, and he joined her. Grabbing their coats and bookbags, and Will's pack of four eggrolls, the pair said goodnight to Yan as she put the last of the seasonings away in the kitchen. Seeing the last carryout carton still sitting on the counter, Will turned back around. "Hey Yan Lin, who forgot their dinner?"

Looking at the carton, Yan sighed. "That one's Eric's. He and Mira took off after we had our 'talk' with him, and he said he wouldn't tell anyone. I guess he forgot it in all the excitement."

"We can take it to him," Matt offered. "It's only a couple extra blocks past Will's apartment to the Observatory …"

"NO!" a voice interrupted from behind them. Turning, they saw Hay Lin, already changed out of her uniform and into her favorite white Japanese school-girl sailor suit. "I mean, delivery is my job, after all, and I'm still not tired, so the ride'll do me good. Alright, Grandma?" Without waiting for a reply, the petite Chinese girl nabbed the carton, flitted out the back door, and with only a second's pause to unlock her security chain, disappeared on her bicycle down the alley.

Yan and Will traded worried looks for a moment, then Matt said, "We'll keep an eye out for her, just in case." He grabbed Will's hand and hurried them both out the door.

Despite a Quintessence-hastened transformation, and an increasingly exhausting aerial search, they never did catch up with Hay Lin.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Mira and Eric got home and went their separate way, Mira slowly climbing the stairs to the room she now shared with Zack, and Eric heading down to the dormer room his grandfather had had built on when the young sax player moved in with him. Even though his parents lived in Heatherfield as well now, Eric still tended to spend most nights at the Observatory.

When he got to his room, he pulled his shirt slowly off, and sank into his desk chair, trying to catch Hay Lin's scent from the fabric. A sudden cool breeze made him look up, to notice that his window was open a few inches. _'I don't remember leaving that open,'_ he started to think, when it closed on its own. Seeing the inanimate move without help just made him think of Hay Lin again, and he uttered her name, head falling back so he was staring at his ceiling. He held the shirt over his heart, and sighed.

"Why not come cuddle up with the real thing, _qingren?"_ a heavenly voice whispered from the far side of the room.


	3. Chapter 3

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard disclaimer applies. Story is now rated **M**. Mature audiences only, please!)

Chapter 3:

"The downward spiral"

"Why not come cuddle up with the real thing, _qingren?"_ a heavenly voice whispered from the far side of the room. Eric whipped around in the chair, and the slim form dressed in white (No wonder he'd missed it in the predominantly tan room, especially in the dark!) sat up to reveal a heavy fall of black hair, and a pair of twinkling eyes over a wide smile. Swinging her legs off the bed, she stood slowly and glided forward on silent feet to stand in front of him. "You forgot your supper," Hay added, holding up a carton of Chinese take-out. She sniffed and grinned. "Combination fried rice with mandarin orange sauce ... interesting. I don't think Grandma's had too many orders like that before."

Eric grinned back at her while trying to fight the blush creeping up his cheeks. He wished he hadn't asked for that particular dinner now; her quick, quirky mind was sure to draw the connection between the box in her hands and the unmistakable smell of her hair: her favorite orange-blossom shampoo combined with the scent of someone who lived in a Chinese restaurant. Hoping to distract her further, he swung the chair the rest of the way to face her, and pulled her forward until her dainty feet were squarely between his. Taking the carton from her with a murmured "Thanks," he put it on the desk behind him, and leaned into her billowing white shirt to take her scent in from the source. "But I'm not very hungry, all of a sudden." He glanced up at her face, wanting to see her expression. "At least, not for food."

Hay's pulse quickened. She leaned down and kissed him deeply. Running her hands through his hair as she pulled him up out of the seat, she slowly backed them up until her legs found the edge of his bed behind her. With a giggle, she leaned back, and let his sudden weight push them over.

Eric landed on top of Hay with an '_Oooof_!' "This is insane," he whispered. "Any second now, your great-aunt, not to mention my soon-to-be second grandmother, is gonna come downstairs, swoop in here, and skin us both alive, Hay-hay." She grinned and shook her head, pulling him up the few inches their fall had offset them for another heart-pounding kiss.

"Uh-uh. Remember the wall of Air that Grandma had me conjure in the kitchen, so the band couldn't hear us interrogate you?" She kissed him again to apologize for the traumatic memory. "Well, as soon as you were through the door, I put one up in here, too." She nodded to the other side of his room and said, "That's what closed the window." She giggled and pulled him back down. _'Too much talking, not enough kissing; Seriously.'_

Eric reached up and ran his fingers through her loose hair, and Hay sighed. "Guess the braid didn't hold up," he murmured, leaving a trail of kisses between his words along her jaw leading towards her left ear. She shook her head softly, ending up with their lips locked again.

"Nope," she smiled, and tugged at the buckle on his belt. He heard the metal and leather of his old belt rasp against each other as they parted ways, and he looked back up at her questioningly. He'd decided long ago that he'd never push her too far towards this; he loved her too much. If she wanted it though, then by all means, he was the last to deny her, and DEFinitely wanted to be the first to volunteer. She deserved her first time to be perfect, and he was determined to make it so. Her tremulous nod was answer enough.

He pulled back slowly, a grin stretching his cheeks to rival hers, and gave the tie of her sailor's neckerchief a tug as he stood back up. With a finger held up to forestall her questions, he swung back over to his desk and busied himself with a small set of supplies he'd put aside months ago, when he had made the decision that Hay was 'The One'.

Two tall orange-blossom candles flickered to slow life in the silver bowls he had found in a flea market downtown, and he set them each on a corner of his desk to spread their light and scent through the room. He turned back towards the bed, only to have his gentle smile – and his heart – both falter at the beautiful sight before him.

Hay had taken advantage of his few seconds' absence to divest herself of every last scrap of her clothing, and now she knelt on his bed, her hair draped in a curtain of night around her, with her hands held up before her, palms joined. She smiled mysteriously, bowed low from the waist, and held out her hands in mute invitation.

Afraid to shatter their mutual illusion, he bowed back to her, then wedding-stepped slowly her way, his eyes drinking her in like his lungs did the Air she held sway over. His hands swung up to take hold of hers, and her small smile widened into her usual ear-to-ear grin as she drew him back onto the bed and into her arms. Not for the first time, (and certainly not the last!) Eric thanked his grandfather for letting him keep his queen-sized bed from their old house in Texas.

They kissed anew, their breath growing rapidly short as Eric's hands wrapped around her tiny waist again, and he became conscious of her nimble fingers once more working at his belt. She gently tugged it loose from his jeans, and looped it around her own waist with a giggle, doing up the clasp with a '_snick'_. "You'll need that later," she muttered into his neck naughtily as her hands went back to work on the front of his pants. Several seconds elapsed as they just leaned together, joined at the lips, until … "Pooh! Where's the zipper on these darn things?" He caught her eyes as she sat back, and winked at her when he saw her pout.

"They're button-fly, Hay-hay." With another wink, he slid back off the bed and divested himself of the rest of his clothes. Rather, most of the rest. To her chuckling delight, he pulled his socks back up, and murmured that she did NOT need to make the acquaintance of his sub-zero toes, no matter _how_ hot she was. Then her eyes wandered back up towards his waist, and all humor fled from her in naked anticipation.

"_Glorious,"_ she repeated from earlier, seeing him in his altogether finally. She couldn't help herself; she slid forward off the bed to kneel before him, and ran her hands up from his knees to his chest. Slowly, she caressed every inch of his exposed body, letting her fingers tell her of all they found. Her eyes meanwhile were transfixed on the engorged phallus before her, bobbing slowly with every beat of his heart and every gasp of his breath as she explored him.

Having touched everywhere else, her hands made their inevitable way to the organ before her. Gently wrapping one hand around his shaft, she played the fingers of the other along the surface of him, starting at the shiny, leaking tip and slowly, agonizingly, with featherlight brush-strokes, towards the base, and his straining testes. Eric groaned. Hay gasped herself at the jump his penis gave, and the strong pulse she could feel just under the skin against her palm. With a giggle of delight, she leaned forward and kissed the side of his shaft, just above her hand. He jumped again, first at the touch of her lips, then at the shock of her low breath as it chilled the moist imprint her mouth had left.

"H – Hay …" he managed to utter, his feet rooted and his hands clenched, trying not to give in to the base desires flowing like lava through his brain and burning away all higher thought.

She transferred her hold on him to his hips, and turned him around. Then with a gentle tug, she led him back to the bed, where he collapsed when the edge of the mattress met the back of his knees. Giggling in triumph, she swooped over him onto the bed, settling sideways against his chest so she could continue examining his private parts. _'Private no more,'_ Hay thought to herself with a proprietary grin. They were hers now, and she'd be damned to Mount Thanos herself if she was gonna share 'em anytime soon. Maybe not even with the rest of the boy attached in question. She giggled again at that errant thought, and swept forward to plant a kiss to the head of his shaft.

That was all it took to push Eric Lyndon over the edge. Her supple hands and her gusts of breath had worked him to a boiling point already, and at the feel of her beautiful lips against him, he exploded in orgasm, his juices pouring forth in spurts aimed right at Hay Lin.

After a first surprised gasp at the impact of ejaculate on her golden cheek, Hay jumped back forward, and sank her tiny mouth around the head of him, drinking every bit of him up as fast as she could. She'd heard of this from Stacy Roman in first-hour Calculus. According to the cheerleader hopeful, boys went nuts for this, and it was one of the few pregnancy-safe ways to play around. Stacy had also said it was horrible-tasting, however, and to expect the worst. With her first taste, Hay tossed any reference from another girl out of her head. Slightly bitter, very salty, and coarse in a sticky way, it reminded her of the salmon roe Grandma bought for their new Saturday Sushi Lunch special. Licking the last drop up with a satisfied grin, she turned around to face her new lover.

"Yum! Liquid sushi!" She squirmed up his body, straightening against him as she went, so her lower legs were dangling off the edge of the bed as well. She used a finger to pluck that first errant drop of him off her cheek and into her mouth as she watched his eyes slowly unclench and his breathing return to a semblance of normal. Not that it would stay that way for long tonight, if she could help it.

She dove forward and kissed him, letting his tongue pass her lips as hers did his, sharing her first intimate taste of him. He coughed at the salty brush of her tongue over his, then grinned against her lips. So that was what he tasted like. He growled low in his throat, and rolled them over. Now he wanted a better taste of _her_.

Hay gasped and giggled as he slowly kissed his way down her body. It wasn't fair; he knew where all her most ticklish spots were, thanks to Irma, and he hadn't had any she could exploit on him. Then he paused at her breasts, and left little rings of kisses around her nipples before slowly, _slowly,_ licking each of them, like a cat bathing a litter-mate. Then he gave each breast a hard suckle, making her nipples tight and hungry for attention, until she gasped again when he suddenly continued downward and left them screaming for his touch.

His trail of kisses slowly meandered down her taught, golden belly, until he arrived at the tiny triangle of dark, springy hair just starting to grow over her _mons_. He gave special attention to it with his fingers, slowly separating as many of the tight curls from each other as he could with careful combing strokes, then with a sigh, lowered himself that final inch to her superheated core. At the barest touch of his fingers, Hay Lin let her breath out in an explosive rush, and opened herself up to him, propping her feet on the edge of the bed. He spent several long seconds just admiring her hidden folds, just a tidy line in her skin intimating there was anything more to her exquisite body than perfect pre-woman wrapped in golden skin.

With a decadent grin, he sank down and pressed a kiss to her newly-revealed second set of lips. Hay cried out, surprised and shocked as her body started to quiver under his ministrations. She could hear his chuckle as he slowly ran one careful thumb across her inner mysteries, and she whined in frustration when he pulled it away, only to gasp again as his lips came back, this time accompanied by his tongue. She squirmed as he teased her with tongue and fingers, at first only on the surface, then slowly going boldly where no man has ever gone before. When he found her clitoris, she couldn't fight back the hyperactive giggle of excitement he gave her, and when he _kissed it,_ she started to hyperventilate in ecstasy.

Carefully drawing her open with his thumbs, Eric marveled at her many gilded secrets, and grinned as his attentions brought a flush of pink to her nether regions, as though her entire body were blushing under his touch. He leaned back in and softly laved his tongue from the bottom to the top of her hidden slit, watching with renewed excitement as her tiny clit jumped when he bumped it with his nose on the way. A naughty idea sprang to life in that instant, and he dove in, slowly French-kissing her intimate folds while using his nose to bat her throbbing 'little man' back and forth. Hay's ragged gasps of his name were all the reward he could ask for, and then …

Her body started to buck, and she sank her fingers into his hair in an effort to aim him just where she needed to be touched next, and suddenly, it didn't matter where he was touching, everywhere was perfect, and she orgasmed under him, her inner fluids flowing out in a river of excited hormones. He did his best to lick it up as she had to him, but found he was just not equal to the task, and when he slowly knelt back from his position, leaned over the bed on the floor before her splayed body, he looked like his chin had been glazed … with love. Hay grinned over her belly at him at the thought.

Dropping her feet, she sat back up in a rush and leaned forward to kiss Eric. Her nose drew in the unmistakable scent of both their arousal, as she became aware of her sweat, and his as her hands drew around his back, and through the rivulets trickling off of him. Then their tongues crossed paths again, and she got her first taste of herself. If he was sushi, she was sweet and sour sauce, she decided. Though that might just have been the insane amounts of soda she habitually consumed. With a giggle, she slowly pulled back from him, wiped her excesses from his chin, and slowly layered her nipples with the liquid.

"What are you doing that for, Hay?" His eyes were dancing with humor … and hunger. She empathized completely.

"Just saving it for you for later, _qingren,"_ she answered with a smile. "I know you'll want to savor it, and there's no point wasting any more on the sheets." She stood up slowly, enjoying the way his eyes followed the slightest tick of muscle under her skin, and drew him to his feet too. Throwing her arms around him, she uttered a strangled "Thank you," into his shoulder. Eric held her close, feeling awkward suddenly.

"Hay, what is it?" he asked, when he became aware that she was crying softly. Pushing her back to arms' length, he saw that though she was crying, she was smiling too, and her grin only widened under his scrutiny.

"I've wanted to do this since Valentine's Day, that's all." Her grin was self-deprecating. "Now I'm wondering why I waited. Of course, if I hadn't, I never would have heard what a 'Blow Job' was from Stacy, and seeing how you enjoyed it, I'm glad I learned that one." Her dimples were a magnetic draw, and he leaned in and kissed her again.

"I'm glad you waited, too, Hay. For your sake. I told you a while ago I'd wait till you were ready, and I still mean it. If you want more, I'm all yours, baby. But please, if you want to stop, by god you better get dressed again, 'cause I don't think I can be the responsible guy I'd like to be if you don't." She giggled again, low and sultry, and he pulled her into another hug just so he wouldn't have to watch her tiny perfect breasts bouncing. Though the feel of them sliding up and down against his chest, as she laughed even harder at his transparent tactic, was an exquisite form of torture in its own right.

She stopped soon enough, and snuggled closer, her eyes just peeking over his shoulder to his desk, where the candles still blazed tall. With a sniff, she recognized the type in an instant, and gave him a peck on the cheek. "Awwww, what're you gonna do if I find a new favorite shampoo? I don't think they _all_ come in a matching candle-scent." He gave her a playful swat on the ass, and she squeaked in delight. Giving him an answering pinch, she pushed him into his chair, and handed him back his now cooled-off combination rice. "Eat up, mister. I'm not done with you yet, and I don't want you fainting in the middle from hunger." Bounding over to where she'd left her clothes, she dug out her always-carried emergency spork, and handed it to him.

Popping the carton open, he gave it an appreciative smell, then grinned at her. "It just isn't the same, now. I like sweet and sour a bit more, I guess." She blinked in surprise, then gave him a hug with a squeal. "Do you want some too? I could present the same argument," he added, waving a spork-ful before her.

"Hmmmm, save me a few bites." She knelt in front of the chair and wrapped her tiny hands around his member, already flying at half-mast again from her proximity alone. "I want some more liquid sushi, first."

As her lips closed around the head of him, Eric realized saving her some wouldn't be a problem. He was afraid to try to eat any himself, certain he'd end up choking instead as her minute motions already had him fully engorged and ready to explode again, and it had only been six _seconds_. He set the take-out carefully back on his desk again, and tried not to fall out of the chair as she shattered his mind again with her affections.

Several breathless minutes later, Eric stumbled back over to his window and tried to tug it open, only to run into a slim layer of Air rushing all along the wall at gale-force speed. Realizing this must be Hay's sound-bubble, he turned back to her with a pleading look. She was already sitting in his chair, slowly chewing a tough bite of cooled chicken from his dinner. With an "Oh!" she set the carton back down and came over to him. Running a finger across the window latch, she grinned when they heard a 'pop', like a giant soap bubble.

Grinning back his thanks, Eric threw the window open, and hung out it for a second, breathing deeply of the cool, moist air outside. Leaving it open for a moment, he crossed back to the desk and retrieved the sweatshirt he'd dropped when she'd first spoken to him tonight. Briskly rubbing it up and down his arms, then across his chest and finally down his back, he breathed a sigh of relief. He gave the poor shirt a cautious sniff, and recoiled from the pong. Tossing the sweat-drenched garment into the far corner, he gave Hay a gentle squeeze and checked out the doorway to see if the hall was clear. Seeing no one, he gave her the traditional one-fingered shushing motion, and snuck out to the bathroom, shutting the door behind him. He was back shortly with an armful of fluffy bath-towels, which he set carefully at the head of his bed. Then he closed the window again, and gave her a nod.

Hay, knowing even better than him just how fine a line she was treading with her Grandma's Altermere upstairs, had been as silent as possible before he'd gotten back, and as soon as he had the door and then the window shut, she threw up a new Air-wall around the room. Breathing simultaneous sighs of relief, the pair grinned at each other. Hay Lin got out of the chair and climbed onto his bed, still carrying the carton. She settled herself with her back to the wall, spread her legs into a U, and pulled his pillow into her lap and patted it invitingly.

With a grin, Eric crossed back over to her and arranged himself against the pillow, sitting sideways with his head level with her breasts. Placing a kiss right over her heart, he grinned up at her. He was about to start after the nipple next to it when she stuck a spork full of rice and shrimp in front of his nose with a giggle.

"Food, then drink, _qingren,_" she teased, waggling the utensil. With a resigned sigh, he accepted the spork-ful. He chewed dutifully, then gave her nipple a kiss with a grin.

"Why not both?" he said, the grin growing lecherous as it crossed his face. She laughed. God, they were bad. Brand new to sex, not even _not_ virgins yet, and they were already acting naughty. Candracar, but she loved him.

"A few more bites first, Eric, then we can try that. I really _am_ hungry." She belied that though, as she held another bite out for him _right in front of her other nipple._ She gasped in pleasure as his teeth scraped past it before his lips closed around the spork, and his breath tickled her as he withdrew.

The two shared half the carton of rice that way, eventually nibbling bite-fulls off of each other from increasingly _risqué_ spots. Finally, Eric had Hay lying on her back again with a tiny trail of rice leading from her collarbone to her crotch, and he was slowly lapping the grains up one by one to the chorus of her giggled delight.

"I think that's enough food for now," he said, setting the carton back on his just-in-reach chair, then diving back between her thighs with a grin. Hay Lin cried out as he put her lower lips under a renewed assault of kisses. Before he could finish her off again though, she grabbed his head and pulled him back up her body.

"I can't take it anymore, Eric. I want to feel you from the inside," she moaned as she grabbed his most intimate parts and brushed them against hers, shuddering at the heat he was throwing off alone. Eric gulped. This was it, he knew. That final moment that would separate them from being eternally frustrated teenagers to eternally horny almost-adults, looking for their next 'fix'. Then another thought hit him, and he boosted himself back up on his elbows over her slim, shivering body.

"Just another second, Hay-hay. We need something." He scrambled up and back to his desk, digging frantically through the drawer he'd had the candles in. _'C'mon, I got them just for this moment,'_ he thought, shuffling through the small pile of partially-written songs he was dedicating to her and pictures she'd drawn for – and of – him. He practically crowed in triumph when he found the small box at the back of the drawer, and dove back into her waiting arms.

"What could possibly be missing? All I need is you, _qingren."_ Eric mutely held up the box of condoms he'd bought over the summer with his lawnmowing-job money. A variety pack from one of the big name-brand companies, he'd cringed back then at the pricetag on it, but now, in the light of Hay Lin's glowing, thankful smile, he felt justified. _"OH!"_ was all she could manage after several seconds of staring at the multi-colored box. Then her naughty giggling started again, and she nabbed it out of his hands, sitting up. "Which one do you want to try first?" she asked with a grin, popping open the flap in the side, and nabbing up a pair of brightly-wrapped foil squares.

He'd made up his mind long ago which one he'd start with, given a chance, and plucked the one marked 'Ribbed for her pleasure' from her grasp. Setting it aside, he took the other one, dropped it back in the box, and tossed that box onto his chair as well. Hay Lin gave him a smile and pulled him back down over her in a deep kiss.

'"Where were we ..?" she sighed, her hands trailing down his back to his hips. She grabbed him and brought her hips forward, so he could feel the heat of her against his thigh and his … Eric propped himself back upright long enough to fumble with the damn packaging, curse the prophylactic companies as he managed to roll the stupid latex sheath on himself, and stare down at her in amazement and longing. She wanted him, he had to keep reminding himself. Of all the lucky bastards in the world to pick from, _she_ … had chosen _him_.

With a sigh, he sank back into her embrace, conscious of the mixed heat of their bodies at the center like never before. "I love you Hay Meiying Lin," he managed to say coherently, losing his mind already at the touch of her tiny hand as she pointed his member in the right direction, and, with a buck of her hips, swallowed his fifth limb whole with a gasp.

"I-I-I love you, too, Eric Kyle Lyndon," she managed to breath out as they became one. With an almost feral cry, she grabbed onto his hips again, wrapped her legs around his, and gasped out a sentence she'd been waiting over fourteen years unknowingly (and a year with him as the target knowingly) to say. "Now, fuck me."

He failed repeatedly to disappoint her, and she wended her way home slowly in the very wee hours of the next morning with a decided hobble, and a smile that even Mrs. Rudolph's math test first thing in the morning couldn't quell.

When asked by Irma how Eric had taken the whole Guardian thing, Hay's only response was the cryptic phrase, "I owe him a new belt."


	4. Chapter 4

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard disclaimer applies. Story is now)

(rated **M**. Mature audiences only, please!)

Chapter 4:

"Sin"

When asked later, Hay Lin was never sure how she got through the first half of her first Friday as a post-virgin. She vaguely remembered a science experiment with magnets and a freezer coil, she could recall the reading assignment page numbers, but not which book it was in, and lunch had been the infamous square-fish-on-a-bun. She had bigger things on her mind, like what she intended to do to Eric tonight instead. Her meager repertoire, gleaned from hours of listening in on girls in her classes, was exhausted. So, she took to following the senior cheerleaders around just after lunch, and harkening to every last syllable the older girls whispered about their many escapades with the football team.

At first she was heartily disappointed, since instead, they were talking about car trouble of all things. But then, as if her very attention had mystically steered the conversation, one of the older cheerleaders said "On a related note, how did you two manage to do it in that micro-subcompact hybrid your mom made you get?"

Wendy Dunne, Uriah's older (and much more glamorous) sister laughed and said "How else? Sidesaddle, Harmony. Duh."

"God, I'm much better off with Douggy. His dad lends him their Tahoe for dates, 'just in case it rains on your picnic'," the dark goddess Candace added to the conversation. Hay remembered her all too well; she'd dated Peter Cook for the first half of last basketball season, and dropped him like a hot rock when one of the other guys on the team got a higher point/shot average. Apparently, she'd moved on from _that_ guy to the quarterback, Doug Wisdom.

Hay's unobtrusive information gathering was brought up short by Taranee, who pulled on her sleeve from behind. "Hey, history is the other way," the Fire-mistress said once she had Hay's attention.

The Air Guardian realized belatedly that she'd turned down the long hallway towards the gym, following the cheerleaders.

"Sorry, Taranee, my head's somewhere else, that's all." The two made their way to history class, taught by their leader's soon-to-be father-in-law, Dean Collins. Hay spent a naughty second wondering what kind of fun the two thirty-somethings got up to together, then firmly put that thought train back out of her mind, determined to try to get through _this_ class at least without drooling, as she suspected she had in math first hour.

"Another day, another decade of the past learned about," Irma quipped from her other side, settling in without her book for class. Again. Hay conscientiously pulled hers out and slid it over to Irma, who looked up in surprised thanks. She'd been about to ask Dean for a hall pass to run back to her locker. "What about you?"

"It's the Renaissance, Irma. Elyon and I have this stuff committed to heart." Hay Lin spent a few minutes musing about art classes with Elyon, and the 'special project' the two were cooking up to help ease little Lillian Hale into her role as the Magical Heart of Earth. She was giddy about the momentary distraction, until Dean Collins dimmed the lights and turned on an overhead slideshow about famous Renaissance paintings, moving through seventeen different slides that showed, amongst other things, way too many brawny guys wearing not enough clothes, and ended with Da Vinci's double-exposure sketch of the naked man in a circle. Hay was pretty sure she wasn't the only girl (and maybe one or two of the guys) in class ogling the center of the picture, but she felt a swell of pity for the unfortunate model, and found herself hoping it had just been _really_ cold that day, for the nameless guy's sake.

She glanced guiltily over at Taranee, hoping the Fire guardian hadn't caught her obvious thoughts, but found Taranee was staring at the _reflection_ of the Da Vinci sketch on her desk instead of the projection, and had stuck one of her little black notepads in the middle, so the interesting bits didn't even show. Hay leaned a little closer, to find out what Taranee was up to, but stopped when she became aware of the Af. Am. girl's almost hyper breathing, and flushed cheeks, which seemed to Hay to be practically glowing in the dark.

"_T? You okay?"_ Hay Lin asked her telepathically. Taranee looked up at her, carefully avoiding catching direct view of the projection screen, and nodded hastily.

"_Just glad my mom doesn't see some of the stuff they teach nowadays,"_ Taranee returned with a gulp. _"Sesamo was so fundamentalist, this would have been banned as pornographic!"_ Hay tittered, and Dean Collins 'Shhhh'd her from the slide machine, then continued his rambling lecture about Leonardo Da Vinci, although he apparently did finally notice that he'd left the same slide up for too long, and switched to the next one, which was the Mona Lisa painting.

"_Oh well, he went and changed it. But if you want a better look to deaden the shock factor, I've got a whole book on Renny Art at my place,"_ Hay told Taranee, who's only answer was a nervous 'Eeeep!'

"_What're you doing to her, Hay-hay?"_ Irma asked from her other side. Hay was about to turn and answer when Dean turned on the lights again, and everybody had to spend several seconds blinking to get their eyes readjusted.

"All right class, I want each of you to come up and pick a name off of this list, and do a report about one of the Renaissance artists. And before you ask, I'm doing it this way so I don't end up with twenty-nine reports about Michelangelo, Leonardo, Raphael, and Donatello. I saw that movie too, and I don't need it again this semester." Most of the class laughed, and slowly filtered up in pairs and triplets to pick names off the list.

Hay grabbed Irma and Taranee and surged forward, determined to get one of her favorites if possible. She'd never really taken a liking to any of the four named, except to think that Mike must have been insane to agree to paint the Sistine Chapel by himself. Getting up to the list, she grinned cheekily when Dean Collins groaned at the sight of the three of them.

"Okay, go on, do your worst to me," he said tolerantly, and slid the list across the desk towards them. Hay gave a laugh when she saw that all four of the infamous 'turtle' names were still unchosen, and immediately pointed Leonardo out to Taranee.

"Go on T, you'll like him, he did _way_ more than paint. He was an inventor, an engineer, a statesman who argued all the time with people like Machiavelli …"

"Why don't _you_ do one about him?" the fire Guardian countered, intimidated by Hay's broad knowledge on the subject.

"Naaaah, I learned about him last year. Hey, you can borrow my notes! I'm more interested in … aha! Heironymus Bosch, first and best of the Dutch Masters, and famous for …"

"Guess I'll take the next guy down, then." Irma wrote the name at the top of a page in her notebook. "San-dro Bot-tic-elli." She looked up at Hay Lin expectantly, and the Air Guardian exchanged a frustrated look with Mister Collins while Taranee laughed. Dean arced an eyebrow at her as if to say 'Don't ask me; she's _your_ friend.'

"It's BOT-ti-CHEL-li, Irma," Hay corrected, "and he's Italian, so get it right, or he'll sick the ghost-mob after you," she added as she led the way back to their desks. "Now, where did I put my Art book?" she pondered, staring off into space and tapping her pencil against her chin.

Taranee grabbed out her new net-cell, and was busily inputting 'Leonardo Da Vinci' into her favorite search engine. She was vaguely aware of at least three other people near her doing their own similar searches, and so was Dean Collins, because he stood up behind his desk, and cleared his throat.

"While I applaud the efforts of those who are too impatient to wait until we can go to the library, I am going to point out right now that any reports I receive that are printed right off of Wikipedia will be regarded as an 'incomplete'. The Grumper sisters both scowled, and Bess started typing something else into her phone.

Taranee grinned, but it quickly faded when she saw she'd garnered over half a million site results. As she was checking out the top one, Mister Collins spoke up again.

"We'll go to the school library Monday, class. The report isn't due for two weeks, though those who manage to finish early may be asked to present theirs before Thursday two weeks from now. And yes, I'm basically giving this long because of Halloween next Friday. I know you'll all be too distracted to finish in _one_ week." Most of the class grinned back at him cheekily, a few foolhardy souls even nodding.

Dean smiled back tolerantly. He had his own reason for wanting two days of mindless reports to listen through. Namely, that he was getting married to Susan Vandom two Saturdays from now, and didn't want to have to think about anything else right beforehand.

Irma meanwhile had flipped her history book to the index, looked up Botticelli, and was now reading the one and a half paragraphs he'd warranted in their high-school texts. Then she nabbed her trusty old dictionary out and looked Sandro B up there, as well. Sadly, her dictionary (which she'd inherited from her dad, which he'd inherited from his,) actually told her more, including years for his Birth and Death. Crowing, she wrote those down under his name in her notebook, and proceeded to elaborate from the pittance in the history book.

Hay Lin, peeking over her shoulder, gasped. "Where does it say that he spent several years in frustrated servitude to his township's laird, Irma?" she questioned hoarsely.

"It doesn't," Irma responded absently. "But the way Elias described it, he made it sound so fact-of-life for back then that I figure it's probably true for almost all the painters." She shrugged nonchalantly.

"Irma!" Hay facepalmed, shaking her head.

"A little help here?" Taranee begged from her other side, and showed Hay the tiny screen of her phone. She'd already successfully disposed of any site that led to 'Leonardo DiCaprio', 'Da Vinci's Inquest', and 'the Da Vinci Code'. It still left her with more than seventy-five thousand possible hits, but Hay saw the one that'd do her the most good immediately.

"Bookmark that one and check it out at home, a two-inch screen just won't do it justice," she said to Taranee with a grin. The Fire Guardian nodded, and then pulled her own notebook out and started a page much like Irma's, with name and dates at the top, in a headstone layout.

"So why aren't you scribbling your heart out, Miss I know it already," Irma mock-whispered out the corner of her mouth.

"I'm gonna work on it this weekend at home, where all my supplies are."

"Oh, Lord," Irma said, looking past Hay to Taranee. "Help us, she just turned her history report into an art project." Taranee laughed.

"Doesn't she always?" Taranee responded. Hay giggled, her mind already thinking of the layout for her poster for the report, and Irma started banging her head on her notebook-covered table.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Science class was sheer agony for Hay. Homework aside, it was the only class she had with Eric. She took pains to keep her hands to herself, even though every nerve in her body was screaming at her to drag him into the dark corner behind the supply cabinet for a quick … _anything_. With iron willpower, she held her raging hormones – and her hands – at bay. But when class ended, and the school-day with it, Eric walked right over and pulled her in for a quick kiss as she was trying to put her books into her rucksack.

Hay's brain shut down, and she pulled him in hungrily, opening her mouth to devour his tentative tongue, while shimmying her tiny rear on top of her desk and wresting the rest of him closer. Half the rest of class ogled them openly, and Cornelia, the only other Guardian in science class with them, hastened forward to pull the pair apart.

"_What in the name of Candracar ..?"_ she started asking, but the dazed look on both of the other teens' faces brought her up short. Hay gave her head a shake, and Cornelia could actually _see_ when higher cognitive function restarted, frighteningly.

"Whoa, when did you come over here, Cornelia?" Eric asked, slowly pulling away from Hay with a disarming grin. Cornelia noticed their hands never parted, and started wondering anew about the night before, when she and the others had walked in on Eric braiding Hay's hair.

"Quite the show, Miss Lin. Is there something you'd like to share with the class?" Mandy Harcourt, the senior teacher's assistant, stopped right behind the flushed Chinese girl. Cornelia, only a freshman but already as tall as the older girl, glared at her until Mandy stepped back in unease.

"Let it go, Mandy. Hay's just missed Eric, that's all. It's the only class they have together." Cornelia held her glare until the T.A. turned away with a "What-_ever."_

Cornelia leaned in closer to the interrupted teens and hissed, "What's up, you two? Is this blowover from last night?"

Grinning at Cornelia's inadvertent pun, Hay shook her head. "Nuh-uh, C. It's like you said, I just _really_ missed Eric today, that's all." The Air Guardian gave Eric a smile that lit up her whole face, and he responded by squeezing her hands and grinning back. Hay let him go long enough to turn and finish with her bookbag, then the pair went to gather his belongings before the weekend. Cornelia watched them go with an increasingly worried frown, and went to find Elyon and the other Guardians.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Before the final bell rang, Will, Irma and Taranee were sitting through the wierdest hour of English class they'd ever had. Their elderly teacher, whose name was Julia Stiles, (much to the amusement of the video-philes,) had taken a sudden, _severe_ dislike to the cafeteria lunch, and had been wheeled out by paramedics. Their emergency substitute teacher, the school nurse Gloria Fleischer, (who _looked_ like the actress Julia Stiles,) was only there for the one hour. With no idea of Missus Stile's lesson plan, she had merely had the class flip open copies of Shakespeare's 'Much Ado About Nothing', start at the top of Act Two, and slowly round-robin the lines desk by desk. The class would invariably chuckle as guys ended up reading female character's lines, and vice-versa.

The teens were just getting into the fun of it when the bell rang, and with much ribaldry, they left off in the middle of the second Scene to stream out the door towards their weekend reprieve. Cornelia came running up to the other three girls, with Elyon, Matt and Nigel shortly behind.

"Will! Taranee! Irma! Come on, we've gotta find Hay Lin and Eric!" Cornelia swept past the trio, catching Irma's elbow as she went and leading them all out the door, knowing Matt and Nigel would gather Will and Taranee in her wake as they went. Cornelia was cursing under her breath as they ran, wishing she'd just sent a mental alert to the Fire Guardian and the Queen of Meridian while she immediately followed the two besotted young lovers. Now, she opened her mind up to Taranee and Elyon and showed them what she'd witnessed between Hay and Eric in science class.

"Putting it mildly, I don't think they were talking about homework as they walked out of class," Cornelia continued, and sighed in frustration. "His hand was pretty low on her back, if you catch my meaning, and after yesterday's weirdness, I don't know if she's thinking right after all. She literally looked like she had to wake back up after their kiss, you guys." The teens all stopped at the bike rack long enough for the four Guardians to gather theirs, then Matt and Elyon went with Nigel to climb into the bassist's hand-me-down Dodge Intrepid.

It was actually his mother's, but since she'd started working at a catering place/banquet hall on the weekdays, she let Nigel drop her off and keep the car for school. He'd been cool about picking the other boys up too in bad weather, and they'd chipped in on gas money, but now the band were all glad Joel had gotten his van fixed finally, since it meant weekend transportation, even if it wasn't for gigs. Stopping now next to the girls in the dark orange car, (which made it look like it had rusted, then gotten a clearcoat finish,) Nigel rolled down the window to let Elyon lean out into the crisp October air.

"We'll check at the observatory," the Meridianite said, "and spare you guys the uphill climb. Call us if you spot 'em." W.i.t.c. all nodded, and made the left turn, going east towards the Silver Dragon from Sheffield Institute's driveway. Nigel went west, and Taranee and Elyon could feel each other recede in their awareness as they both opened up their mental senses, trying to track Hay Lin.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Hay locked lips with Eric on the steps of the Heatherfield Library, two blocks north of Sheffield. They'd run the whole way there, since Hay's bike was chained up at home with a flat tire, (she'd found a nail in the dark on her way home that morning,) and Eric had gotten so little sleep after she'd left that his grandfather (always an early riser since his army days) had driven the half-conscious teen, minus bicycle, to school just in time to miss homeroom. With Hay back in his arms, he was feeling much more refreshed than even the 'Energizer' Vitamin Water he'd consumed at lunch had left him.

The teens paused to breathe, and Hay giggled. "Come on, knowing the others, we got here first, and I want to find that book before the other people need it."

"What're you doing a report on again?" Eric asked, body singing loudly enough to fog up his brain.

"Heironymus Bosch, Dutch painter from the Fifteenth Century. Famous for his wonderful murals, especially the one I want to show you, but I don't have a decent copy at home, and the Library has this really great giant table-book version that folds out to show the whole thing." Hay led her lover up the steps and into the Library, each of them conscientiously dropping a dollar in the new 'contributions welcome!' box just before the checkout desk. It was an Arts and Sciences invigoration plan her friend and mentor Elias van Dahl had started up to help out the flagging Heatherfield Museum originally, as an oblique 'thank you' for housing his painted prison for so many years safely. The Library had adopted it within a week, and the dividends went towards expanding their new internet and multimedia wing.

Leading Eric to the upper level where the non-fiction reference shelves waited, Hay set them up at a corner table near the emergency fire stairwell in the back. With a wink, she disappeared into the stacks, and he cracked his homework open from the last two days, trying to make some sense of the new chapter in Algebra II before Missus Rudolph's usual brain-juicer of a math test on Monday. He'd managed one problem, and was twisting his cortex around the next, when Hay returned with a book roughly the size of her lithe young body.

Heaving the tome onto the table with a grunt, she started flipping through the pages rapidly, looking for the four-page gatefold picture she remembered seeing last spring when the library had first gotten this book, and they'd displayed the reproduced painting as a draw to the interested. She remembered the uncontrollable giggles that had overcome her and Elyon that day too, when they had first seen this wonderfully rendered, but wholly immoral painting. "HA!" she announced, locating it at last about a third of the way through the book, just as Eric finished his third algebra problem.

Hay turned the book, and opened the folded pages out so Eric could see the complete three- paneled picture at once. "Behold, Bosch's most controversial masterpiece. Done in an age of moral rectitude and religious fervor, I present 'The Garden of Earthly Delights'!" She leaned over the book and started pointing out the many details that had almost gotten her and Elyon kicked out of the library for giggling that afternoon. She was glad she'd steered them where she had now; the lone librarian down at the desk hadn't even heard her exclaimed 'Ha!', and the only other patron on the second level had simply looked over at them curiously, then gone back to his own browsing.

Eric looked in shock at the triptych before him. The thing was almost pornographic in its blatant portraitures, several dozen miniature couples going wildly at it in various locations in what was otherwise a gorgeous landscape still. Trees and shrubs and even the creek flowing through the center shone with a realism and attention to detail that rivaled the wanton expressions on the many faces throughout the work. No overt sexual detail was visible, aside from the occasional slice of breast showing in some of the womens' poses, but the overall actions of the many couples was impossible to miss.

"Soooo," Hay murmured, and he looked up just in time to see her lower her eyes till she was staring at him from behind her lashes (something she _must_ have learned from the cosmopolitan Cornelia, or Irma the incorrigible flirt). He gulped as she continued. "Give you any ideas, Mister Lyndon?" He looked past her shimmering hair to the glowing 'Exit' sign behind her pert behind, gave her a hungry nod, and stood. She leaned into him with a squeal he hastily muffled with a kiss, and the two shuffled around the table and through the door to the back stairwell, still joined together at the lips.

_w.i.t.c.h._

"I can't believe we both looked in the wrong direction," Will told Matt, as she and Irma locked the Guardians' bikes together in front of the Library. Nigel and Cornelia had already jogged ahead, as the longest-legged of the group. Elyon and Taranee were marching with purpose close behind them. The teen heroes had wasted at least a half hour going to the Observatory and the Lins' restaurant.

Just short of the door, Cornelia and Nigel were abruptly pushed back … by none other than Hay and Eric as the pair came out of the building, laughing. Hay's arms were full of ginormous table-art books, and Eric had both the teens' backpacks.

"Seriously, _amante,_ when are you going to be able to get through all of these?" Eric was asking Hay. "You've checked out half the Art History section, here."

"_Oh, boy,"_ Taranee thought, hearing him use the Spanish word for 'lover'.

"Hey!" Irma said from behind her, reacting to the rest of Eric's statement. "She better not have! I've still got to find another page-and-a-half to write about Steve Buscemi!"

"You mean Sandro Botticelli, Irma?" Hay tittered. She shuffled the tomes in her arms so one poked up from the pile. "Gotcha covered, G F. This one's got a whole chapter on him. Leo, too, T."

"So what're the rest of them, Hay-hay?" Nigel voiced, leaning to try and read the titles sideways.

"Just some light reading," Hay Lin responded. She was glad she'd shoved the smaller, _racier_ books into her backpack. Aside from the book with the Bosch triptych, she'd also found an illustrated Kama Sutra from the beginning of the nineteenth century, as well as a _really_ detailed life-drawing book in the arts instruction section.

"If that's light reading, I'd hate to see you _seriously_ studying," Irma quipped. "That stack looks like it weighs as much as _you_ do." The other Guardians and the boys chuckled good-naturedly.

"Almost," Eric commented, inadvertently reminding them of why they had all chased the pair to the Library to begin with.

"_Ohmigod!"_ Taranee sent to the other four girls, Including Elyon with the rest of W.i.t.c.h. _"I get the feeling we're here after the fact, folks."_

"_What? Thinking Eric the valiant has already gone where angels would fear to tread?"_ Irma snorted. Cornelia and Taranee both rolled their eyes, while Elyon and Will traded freshly worried looks, even as the oblivious Hay was leaning around the armful of books to kiss Eric again.

Matt and Nigel both just gaped at the brazen pair on the Library steps. Will started trying to say something, but couldn't manage anything coherent. Taranee finally nabbed Hay's off-side sleeve, and tugged hard.

"Hey, you two, ya mind? You're steaming up my glasses," she said, half joking. Her lenses _were_ fogged over, but she suspected it was all from herself as she'd watched. Nigel, Hay and Eric all laughed, being close enough to see it, while the others just chuckled nervously.

"Hey, my place is closest," Elyon said. "Let's all just go there to study." When Hay looked at Eric longingly again, the young Queen continued. "Anyway, I've still got your art book at my place, Hay-hay." There it was; the only surefire interruption for Hay Lin's suddenly preoccupied mind: art. "Aaaanndd, I'd really like your help with my Halloween costume. It's still missing something, but I'm just not sure what."

The other girls started congratulating Elyon telepathically. If anything was bound to take up Hay's free time, _that_ would be it. "Awwww, if you'd just asked yesterday," Hay uttered. "But I already promised Eric I'd help him with _his_ costume tonight, when I was delivering his dinner yesterday."

The others could only watch, flabbergasted, as the two teens squeezed out from the middle of the group and sauntered (there wasn't any better word to describe their departing walk) off towards the Observatory. Hay made one quick stop next to Nigel's mom's car to tip the one book she had checked out for Irma onto the trunk. Then with a pinky-wave, she and Eric continued on.


	5. Chapter 5

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Mystic Prequel Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard Disclaimer Applies, _Rated __**M!**_)

Chapter 5: "A Warm Place"

Hay and Eric stumbled awkwardly into his room in the Observatory. She was fast losing her hold on her three table-books, and his arms were sagging under their two laden backpacks. Their progress was further hindered by the fact that they were trying to kiss as they went through the doorway. Hay giggled even as she slithered her pert behind against the doorframe to get the rest of the way past, her left pigtail crawling across Eric's shoulder from when they'd leaned together.

She sat on the bed with an _'Oooomph!"_, and lay her cargo down on the mattress beside her. Eric sank into his captain's chair, letting a backpack slide off each shoulder onto the floor around him. They looked at each other longingly for a moment, then Hay sank back with a sigh, her arm flipping up to cover her eyes. "I know we were gonna go with complimentary costumes, _qingren,_ but I've changed my mind about the pirate theme."

"I thought you picked that because you could get all the basic clothes from Meridian, and we were just going to 'pirate them up' afterwards." The two had run ideas for costumes past each other the night before between their third and fourth bouts of interpersonal gratification.

"I know, I know, but now I wanna show off that body of yours you're always hiding under those bulky sweaters and button-ups," she said, tilting her head up and leering at him fetchingly.

Eric grinned back at her. "I hide it because I don't _need_ to advertise. I've already _found_ the girl of my dreams."

With one of her characteristic squeals of delight, Hay Lin was off the bed and straddling his lap in an instant. Drawn by the noise, Mira poked her head in from the hallway.

"Hey, you two. Dinner'll be ready in … Alright, missy; three paces back, right now!" Hay gulped at the scowl her grandmother's Altermere gave her, and popped back to her feet.

"Yes, Ma'am …" she said contritely, then immediately perked up. "So whatchya cookin'?"

"Swedish meatballs and mixed veggies," Mira answered automatically. If art was Hay's weakness, cooking was Yan – and Mira – Lin's. "What are you two _supposed_ to be working on in here?"

"Reading assignment," Hay said at the same time Eric was groaning "Algebra." Then both brightened considerably as they said "And our costumes!" together. Mira grinned.

"And what are you two going as _this_ year?" They'd been Dorothy and the Scarecrow from Oz last Halloween, and Hay and the other Guardians had been too busy fighting off Nerissa the year before.

"Batgirl and Robin!" Hay Lin chirped, and dove around Mira to pull her backpack into the middle of the room. She pulled from it a roll of black cloth already marked in white pencil with two body outlines. She unfurled it across Eric's bed with a practiced snap of her wrist and dove back into her pack for the pencil itself and her measuring cord. With a saucy grin, she pulled Eric to his feet, gave him a swift peck of a kiss as she spun them both around, and fairly shoved him onto the bed on top of the roll of black fabric.

She was leaning over him, one leg planted between his where they dangled over the side, and humming the _'Animated Batman'_ theme while she traced his body outline in white before Mira could so much as blink, let alone voice a coherent complaint. "Behave, you two. I really don't want to hear that we're arranging your shotgun wedding before Zachary has even worked up the courage to propose to me," the elderly Chinese woman said to her twin's granddaughter and her boyfriend's grandson. Shaking her head, she turned to go back to her cooking. "Dinner in twenty, you two, and …"

She nabbed a strap on Hay's backpack with her slippered foot and pulled it in front of the door … to prop it open. "You may as well get the real homework done, first. I can help you with all the patternwork after dinner, Hay-hay." Mira had hurried off to check on her simmering sauce before she could see the rebellious pout Hay threw her way.

"Pooh. She isn't gonna give us a moment's peace tonight, _qingren."_ Eric drew one hand softly down the side of her face, and leaned up to give her a soft, lingering kiss.

"_Paz, amante,"_ he breathed against her cheek, making her breath quicken. "We have our whole lives ahead of us to lose ourselves. One night of patience …" He was cut off as she brought her mouth back to his, and he could feel the air in his lungs heat up with the passion of her kiss. The pair only parted when the white pencil she'd been tracing around him snapped in her clenching hand as she leaned further against him. _"Whoa …"_ he managed to breath.

Hay clambered off of him with a visible shudder. "I … I'm sorry, _qingren._ I honestly don't know what's happening to me lately. I mean … other than the obvious," she continued coyly, glancing over her shoulder. "But it's like Cornelia said in science class. I can't manage to think clearly when we touch. I want you too much." She giggled. "I'm a poet, and I didn't even know it." Eric chuckled back at her as he sat up.

Glancing over his shoulder at her pattern of his prone body, he laughed harder. "I don't know, Hay-hay. Something in there's still ticking away. I don't think you could have managed _this_ by accident." Eric pointed to where the outline for his arm ended, mere millimeters from where her own outlined hand was traced. The fingers of both figures intermeshed exactly, as if even their unfinished costumes were already holding hands.

Hay let out a low _"Awwww,"_ as she stepped back over to him, and interlaced her real hand with his. Then she stepped back like a scalded cat, and whirled back to get her reading homework out. Resolutely settling herself in his desk chair, she toed his own backpack toward him. "Algebra," she said with a sad smile. Looking at the book in her hand, she sat deep in thought for a moment, then chucked it back in her bag again, and stood up with a grimace.

"Ooooh! I can't even concentrate on that! I'm … I'm going to help Mira cook dinner. You two like Swedish meatballs so much, I guess I better learn the recipe," she added with a parting wink, and disappeared down the hall to the small kitchen on the far side of the observatory. Eric watched her – and her cute butt – march purposefully off, and settled back to another fifteen minutes of math Hell before dinner.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Mira set Hay to boiling the noodles, and the poor Air Guardian was nearly too distracted to manage that. Finally giving herself a good pinch to the inside of her arm, Hay Lin got down to the business of stirring egg noodles without turning them into hopeless mush. She meanwhile pestered Mira with questions about her Swedish meatball sauce, trying to commit the correct measure of ingredients to memory. Deciding she'd be better off digging through her mom's old inherited set of Betty Crocker cooking encyclopedias, Hay gave it up as a lost cause after the fourth dry ingredient slipped her mind … _again …_ and wrangled the pan to the strainer when the noodles were just between _al dente_ and dough.

"Done!" she announced, turning the noodles over in the strainer with a serving spoon to lose the most liquid. "I'll tell Eric and Zack," she said, and flitted back up the hallway. Taking the stairs two at a time to the telescope level, Hay found Zachary Lyndon just climbing out of the primary reflector's chilled housing, rubbing his arms from the bare elbows down to warm them back up.

"Hay-hay! Just in time! Care to catch a glimpse of Saturn before sunset?" the elderly astronomer asked.

"Ooooh! Absolutely! Oh! By the way, dinner's ready!" Hay Lin danced over to the platform holding the viewer's chair, and patiently waited for Zachary to finish adjusting the final couple degrees on the mirror's angle.

"There ye go, Hay," he said good-naturedly, sliding back out of the chair after ensuring the view. She eagerly squirmed into place and stuck her eyes to the binocular viewer the Observatory had gotten last year during their renovation. Zachary smiled at her enthusiasm. He'd gotten used to the hyperactive girl over the last two years his grandson had dated her, as well as her four very different friends. He'd even gotten used to the fact that a couple of them liked coming to the Observatory for the actual telescope experience, which he'd begun to despair was a dying interest with the accessibility of the net and Hubble downloads. But studious Taranee would come by at least once a week to see what their newest search vectors were looking at, and whenever Zachary did a mirror check, Hay Lin's flighty friend Irma would come by to stare at the moon's more prominent features with him.

Of course, Hay herself loved any peek through the lens, but her artist's eyes especially loved the spectacular views afforded them by their relative altitude (almost a mile above sea level at Observatory Hill.) He loved dialing in the latest chances to glimpse their nearby stellar neighbors just so he could see her wonder-struck expression again and again. Zack considered it the least he could do to thank the vivacious girl for introducing him to her equally interesting Great-aunt. He laughed good-naturedly as she _'Ooooh'_ed and _'Aaaah'_ed now at the great twilight view of Saturn. But, bundle of energy that she was, even artistic Hay Lin couldn't sit and stare in awe at the heavens forever.

"Wow! I think the second ring was even brighter tonight!" she said as she climbed out of the astronomer's seat. "We'll have to see if we can keep track of it through the night, and see if we can find ring five this time!" It was an ongoing quest for the two of them as well as Taranee: to see the faint fifth ring of Saturn through a terrestrial lens, instead of having to continually sigh in envy over the Hubble pictures. All three wanted to be able to say they'd seen it for themselves just once. Zachary grinned back at her.

"I've already got in programmed in for the night, lass. We've just gotta check on it every once in a while, now. C'mon, let's go eat." The two split apart at the bottom of the stairs to rejoin their respective sweethearts.

When Hay poked her head back into his room to tell Eric dinner was ready, he snapped his Algebra book shut with a sigh of relief. "Good! I've still got half a dozen problems to go. Maybe the food will help me concentrate," he said, standing up. She looped her arm through his as they went back up the hall to dinner, only letting go when Eric followed his grandfather's example and held out Hay's chair while Zachary held Mira's. The two women gave their men matching thank-you kisses, Hay with much giggling, and the four sat to their meal.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Hay gave her soon-to-be junior dark knight a reluctant goodnight kiss at a quarter to nine, and headed off towards the Silver Dragon. Yan Lin had called during dinner to see if she was there, and told her 'sister' to send the girl home at a reasonable time. Hay's only complaint was that she didn't get more than a second body-trace managed with Eric after their meal and homework. Mira told her to leave the bolt behind, and she'd see what she could manage, but Hay demurred, saying she still had more work to do with her own, first.

Her big surprise was waiting just outside at the Lins'. All the other Guardians, Matt, Nigel, and Elyon were waiting just outside in the alleyway, and when they saw her dragging her feet home, Cornelia telekinetically grabbed Hay by the wrist and pulled her into the alley with them.

"What gives, you guys?" the Air Guardian chirped when she stopped before them.

"Emergency back on Metamoor," Elyon answered. "Phobos managed to steal some spark from his cage door, and escaped. He took Cedric and Frost with him, and led a level's worth of lurdens on a rampage into the Bog of Eternal Stench." The young Queen hung her head. "Miranda said Cedric didn't go willingly, so apparently my brother has added revenge to his usual list of crimes-in-preparation. Aldarn just went back to rouse the Irregulars after telling us."

"Well, what're we waiting for?" the hyperactive latecomer asked, resettling her armload of table-books. "Open a fold, and we'll help you get him back before breakfast, Elyon!"

"You might want to leave all that _here_, Hay-hay," Irma said, pointing to her friend's armful and bulging backpack. "We are talking about the Bog, after all."

"Oh! Right …" Hay Lin hurried through the door of the restaurant, where she almost ran Caleb over in her haste. Helping right her path after their collision, he asked what she was hurrying for. "Didn't the others tell you? Phobos escaped!" she blurted, dashing up the stairs two at a time to deposit her school stuff in her room. She floated back down from her balcony into the (strangely) empty restaurant, and darted back out the door and into the alleyway, to see Caleb coming from the other end out the kitchen exit the teens had over-used just yesterday. He was still carrying the broom he'd been sweeping the dining area with seconds before, as well as his customary long coat.

"Well, Your Majesty?" Taranee tittered. Elyon said a quick thank-you to all her Earthly friends, and opened a fold to Meridian.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Six hours later, Hay slid into Eric's bedroom window just as a gentle misting rain started to fall. She hurriedly closed the window and put up a wall of air around the room like she had the night before. Soundproofed once more, she collapsed into Eric's chair and lay her head back onto his desk.

Her rattled sigh was just loud enough to get Eric's sleepy attention. Looking up from where he'd been dreaming of Hay Lin anyway, he murmured "Hey, you. How'd you get way over there?"

Hay snapped upright. "Oh, hey, sleepyhead. We just got back from Meridian. Phobos got loose again, and we've been trying to track him down since I left. But I promised myself I'd see you before I went to bed." She grinned at him. "I even fixed my bike tire so I could get here quicker. I just hope that …" A roll of thunder cut her short, and she looked out the window with a sinking feeling. Eric woke up just enough to see the start of the rainstorm that washed the side of the Observatory clean. "_Shoot_," Hay swore, standing slowly. She drifted over to the window in her peasant slippers, making next to no sound, as opposed to the thud Eric made as he clambered up and walked over behind her.

"What's the matter, _amante?"_ he asked her, wrapping her up in his arms. She snuggled her slight frame against his, and he noticed with a pang that she was starting to shiver. "Come on," he said, and led her back to his still-warm bed. Settling her into the nest of blankets his body had left behind, he covered her back up with the first layer of comforters before sliding himself around her back and pulling the second one over them both. She shivered again, rattling both their teeth, and he repeated his question.

"Just … still trying to warm up from slogging through the swamps of Meridian, _qingren."_ She wriggled in her cocoon until she was facing him, and gave him an Eskimo kiss, rubbing their noses together with a giggle. "Ooooh! That stupid Phobos! Taking off in the middle of the night into the Bog of Eternal Stench, like we don't have anything better to do than chase after him on a Friday night!" Eric held her closer as she shook now with anger. "If I didn't know better, I swear the universe was conspiring against us, just after we got to be together at last." She managed to fight with the blanket around her just enough to get both her arms halfway around him at the waist, and sighed. Eric gave her a chaste peck on the forehead, and she sighed again. She kissed his neck in return, taking her time and enjoying the feel of his lovely bronze skin under her soft, soft lips.

It was his turn to sigh, as she showed no signs of leaving him to fall safely back to sleep. His sigh turned ragged as he felt her lips part. But instead of the slick caress of her tongue, which he'd come to prize above all other of her many teases, of which she'd proven she knew _too many,_ Hay bit down softly, then shook her head like a puppy with a new chew-toy _WAY_ too big for it. His sigh turned into a groan, and he tilted his face down to hers as she let go his neck. Their lips met once more in slow-burning passion, and the rest of their bodies quickly ignited from there, only to find that Eric had done a superb job of wrapping her up, after all.

Finally popping out from the side of the blankets, Hay swiftly doffed her new green kimono and black peasant pants, and scrambled back in between the blankets where Eric awaited her in his maroon pajamas. Too impatient to try peeling him out of them, she started digging around on the front below his waist until she found the flap all men's pajamas had built into them. With a triumphant cry, she reached inside to find …

Eric couldn't help but chuckle at her groan, when she encountered his additional layer of underclothing. "Sorry, _amante,"_ he murmured into her hair as she pouted, once more denied her prize by the vagaries of men's clothing. "I really wasn't expecting you back tonight, or I'd have dressed accordingly."

"Well, plan on it from now on," she growled as she pushed him onto his back, straddled him, and used her feet to shove his lower clothing off. Then she lay down over his chest, kissing him soundly while her hands and her hips did a complex wriggle to divest her of her own last vestiges of modesty.

"No bra again?" he asked, halfway between tease and honest curiosity.

Hay lifted herself back to a sitting position, doing things to his mind with her posterior better left in the porn industry. Nabbing his hands from her waist, she planted them over her still-barely-there aerodynamic bumps. "I'm built for speed and agility," she told him softly. "A gymnastics dream body, and pretty handy in the air, too," she said with a wink. "I probably won't need a bra till I'm Grandma's age, and these perky little things finally decide to slide off my ribcage." Hay wriggled herself against his hands, bringing both their breath short, as her upper-body shimmy moved her lower half against his.

Eric hurriedly let one of her tiny breasts free long enough to root under the pillow behind him for the box he'd hidden there that morning. Handing it mutely up to her, he replaced his hand before she could pout at him. Box in hand, all thought of reprimanding him for playing favorites with her boobs disappeared however. Rooting around like a kid trying to find the prize in a box of cereal, she held up three for him to pick from. "Ah, we haven't seen that one, yet," he said, pointing to the middle one. Dropping the other two back into the box, she squinted harder against the rain-obscured light from his window.

"'With new His and Hers lubricant'" she read. "These things were a lot easier to read with the candles, _qingren."_

"I'll pick up a nightlight tomorrow at Smarty-Mart," he teased back, and ran his hands down from her breasts to her hips, where he sent his thumbs inward to tease her mercilessly. She growled back at him again, and scooted down long enough to wrangle his length into its protective sheath. Then with a single swift surge, she brought herself forward and onto him with an ecstatic moan. They fell into a slow rhythm as she leaned back into his arms. Their lips met just as the two lotions did their work, and the pair let loose simultaneous cries that muffled between them. Hay became aware of a low litany of _"Ohmigod, ohmigod, ohmigod …"_ softly repeating in the back of her mind, and reasonably sure it wasn't Taranee, came to the conclusion of the only other voice it could be.

"Qingren, _is that you?"_ she managed to send telepathically. Her inner voice sounded as heavy-breathed as she knew she was at the moment.

"_Ah_ … amante?" she heard from him faintly.

"_Yes!"_ she cheered. She brought her swift pelvic rhythm back down to a slow grind, letting them both catch their breath. She wanted to savor this new development before they blew each other's minds. "_Don't be afraid, _qingren_. We talk to each other like this all the time. The Guardians, I mean. I didn't know we could do this with other people, though. Maybe it's just people we're 'specially close to. It could explain why we didn't hear each other 'til now, hmmmm?"_ Eric gave her a long, level look, and pulled her back in for another slow-burning kiss that nevertheless started their dance anew.

"_I_ _don't think that's the _only_ reason,"_ he returned, concentrating as best as possible between thrusts. Just then, the additional lubricants for both genders activated, and suddenly, neither of them could manage to articulate for several moments, mentally or otherwise, except for their mutual moans of pleasure. Finally, Hay slid bonelessly off to one side, her fingers coiling into his pubescent chest hairs.

"_Wow …"_ they sent to each other. Hay giggled low in her throat. _"Okay, we have to save _those_ ones for special occasions,"_ she managed to continue after a moment. He felt around by his pillow slowly until he found the foil square.

"'_His and Hers' … they aren't kidding …"_ Hay's giggling got louder. _"What, _amante?"

"_Somebody in that lab is _WAY_ underpaid …"_ she managed, before she surrendered to the fit of hysteria completely. He soon followed, and the two chuckled their way to sleep shortly after.

Mira Lin woke up an hour later to the sound of a vaguely familiar _'pop!'_ Looking at the time, she just shrugged and rolled back over to snuggle next to Zachary Lyndon and went back to sleep.


	6. Chapter 6

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Mystic Prequel Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard Disclaimer Applies, _Rated __**M!**_)

Chapter 6: "We're in this together"

The Guardians' Saturday morning started off even worse than their Thursday had. Thankfully, without classes to worry about, they headed right back into the fray without even trying to summon Astral Drops. Irma and the others were even more exasperated about Hay Lin than they had been the day before, especially after she showed up bright-eyed and raring to go after they'd only been back on Earth for four hours. The girls stepped into Meridian and met Elyon at the foot of the ramp leading up to her castle, and Irma groaned at the happy squeal Hay emitted when they first saw the young Queen.

"How can you _be_ that chipper with three hours' sleep?"

"Easy!" the Chinese girl replied. "5-Hour Energy Shot!" she lied. Hay didn't think it was anyone else's business that she had discovered the ultimate rejuvenator: a good lover. At the other Guardians' murderous looks, she just said "What? I kept one in my dresser for G-mergencies. I thought everybody did."

"G-mergencies?" Elyon giggled.

"Yeah," Will chuckled. "We blame Irma for that one. Along with 'Going Guardian' …"

"Guardian up," Cornelia supplied.

"Candracar's Heavies," Taranee tittered, remembering Irma's newest from Thursday night, during cleanup at the Silver Dragon.

"Ooooh! My personal favorite!" Hay added with a mischievous grin_. "Phobosbusters!"_ Taranee and Elyon both burst out laughing, while Irma just simpered back at her friends.

"It is way too early to waste what little energy the _rest_ of us have catching your rotten brother … again," she said, trying to ignore Will and Hay chanting _'Who ya gonna call?'_ "Can't we stop in the palace for a real breakfast first, or something peppy to drink at least?"

"Oh, Elly, do you still have that divine pastry chef?" Cornelia blurted. "That one that made those lemon-drop cookies last time I visited?" Thoughts of a real breakfast, especially one prepared by the newest cook in Meridian suddenly overrode all thoughts of Phobos.

"Like I'd get rid of anybody that wonderful … unless they asked," Elyon answered. "Turns out she's just an apprentice chef, with a real knack for desserts. Her name's Alanna." The Queen of Meridian smiled. "She's barely a teenager, so she lets her sweet tooth do the cooking for her. Her words, not mine," she added. "She also admitted she saves her best recipes for my weekend visits. Apparently, my Chancellor isn't a big fan of sweets." Elyon was staying in Heatherfield during the week, determined to at least finish High School.

Her adopted parents wholeheartedly supported the idea, and maintained their Earth home – and their cover – as the Browns. Now that the war against Phobos had been won, they'd even relaxed and advanced into a real marriage. Thomas and Eleanor had 'renewed' their vows for Elyon's birthday party on Memorial Day, (The closest Earth equivalent to her Meridian birthday) and settled into their suburban lifestyle again.

"I've already had the cooks prepare us some meals to go," Elyon said with a grin. "I figure we could be searching all day, knowing my brother's sneakiness, so I sat with Vathek and the other rebel leaders and we came up with a list of possible hiding places he could be using. Not surprisingly, a bunch of them have volunteered to accompany each of us as ground support." She grinned ferally. "They _really_ don't want him staying loose."

"Let me guess," Cornelia returned. "Caleb, Drake, Aldarn, Vathek, Raythor, and Julian, right?"

"Close," Elyon admitted with a smile, and waved the Guardians to follow her to the barracks nearby. "All four younger guys, some of their trainees, and … Miranda." She paused, to wait out the inevitable blast of noise that announcement was inviting, but when she turned back to check, all the Guardians just stared at her in blank shock.

"Mir … _'Ack-hmm!'_ Miranda wants to _help?"_

'_Leave it to Irma to be the first one to speak up,'_ Elyon thought. "Yeah," she continued. "She's _that_ worried about what Phobos will do to Cedric. Too crazy, huh?"

"OOOOH! You don't think ..?" Love-happy Hay Lin gasped out.

"What?" most of the other girls demanded, while Taranee, catching a glimpse of the thought that had occurred to Hay, came to her own conclusion.

"Cedric and Miranda, sittin' in a tree …" she started the old schoolyard tease. Giggling, the others joined in one by one, but they were all hopelessly laughing too hard to finish the final verse. The courtyard guards within hearing range looked on nervously as their Queen and the Guardians of the Infinite Dimensions succumbed to their inner teen girly-ness.

"O M G, I am _so_ teasing her while we're out," Elyon managed, wiping tears from her eyes.

"So where are they all?" Will asked.

"Aldarn and Drake are bringing Miranda up now, and Caleb is trying to convince Blunk to lend a hand. Or in Blunk's case, his nose," the young Meridianite responded. "The rest are waiting for us in their all-new, freshly-constructed briefing room." She waved a hand towards the barracks, and the six girls headed forward again.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Vathek was calling the troops to order from their own breakfast when the six girls entered. "Your Majesty, just in time," he said, catching sight of Elyon. "Volunteer scouts, _to the front!"_ he called out. Thirteen young men and women stepped forward from the rank and file of the barracks. "Queen Elyon, your hunters await." Vathek gave her a bow, fist clenched over his heart, and the troops followed suit.

Elyon and the Guardians gave the volunteers a good look-over. The baker's dozen were teens and young adults, not much older than the girls, who'd all been among the rebels fighting against Phobos before. Nine men and four women, all looking eager and determined, peered back at the Guardians with as much curiosity. Since the last battle against Nerissa and Phobos two years before, the girls hadn't been to Meridian often, save to visit with Elyon, and those informal trips hadn't included much in the way of extensive traveling. So this was the first time many of these folks had gotten to see W.i.t.c.h. since the successful end of the rebellion.

It was also the first time the Guardians had seen some of these faces from closer than across a battlefield, or at all. Including two of the four women, blue-skinned like Vathek, with tiny bone-ridges instead of eyebrows, and short-clipped blonde hair in matching falls over their new Meridian City guard uniforms. They were standing apart, one of the southeast desert-province's red lizard-men between them, but Hay's artistic eye caught the subtle details.

"Hey, you're twins, aren't you?" she blurted to the two, and they sighed and hung their heads, while the other volunteers and some of the other troops behind them chuckled.

"My sister's daughters," Vathek beamed, coming to their end of the line of troops. "Bruyere and Acebo, two of my best new trackers, meet the Guardians. _Finally,"_ he added so low only Hay heard him. While the three girls exchanged handshakes, another Earth custom that Elyon and the Guardians had imported, Vathek continued under his breath. _"Maybe now they'll start believing all my other war-stories, too."_ Hay giggled, and gave him a wink when the others were distracted.

The other volunteers all wanted to meet the Guardians better as well, and each of them seemed to have a favorite. Taranee found herself with three of the red lizardfolk, one of them female, all curious to learn more about her. She found out why soon enough. Hailing from the deserts near the volcanic eastern coast of Metamoor's central continent, their race had developed a resilience to heat almost as great as her magic granted her.

Elyon and her most frequent visitor Cornelia were circled by the former rebels the two had often run into around Meridian City, including the son of the baker whose shop was next to Aldarn's father Aketon's smithy. Koruk smiled good-naturedly at the familiar jibes about him and Aldarn having been switched at birth, his caramel skin-tone notwithstanding. He was a bear of a young man, and he took advantage of his familiarity with the Queen to pull her into an embarrassing hug that lifted her a foot off the ground, to Irma and Cornelia's amusement.

Irma had her own retinue of the green-skinned riverfolk from the north province, land of Aketon and Aldarn's ancestors. They maintained a long tradition of Water magic of their own, and Irma soon found herself in a lively debate over maintaining an air-supply versus adapting to breathe the water when swimming deeply.

Hay dragged Will over to meet Bruyere and Acebo, as the Guardian who figured most prominently in many of Vathek's stories. The last female volunteer stuck near them, the red-haired Leader noticed. While she was exchanging pleasantries with the twins, Will sent to Hay. _"You're the friendliest, Hay-hay. See if you can find out what has her so scared."_

"_Gotcha, Will,"_ the Air Guardian returned, and spent a minute shaking hands with the other troops nearby, trading names and smiles like only Hay could, until she'd worked her way around behind Vathek's twin nieces. As if by accident, she backed into the skulking maiden, and the two both whirled at the same time to face each other. "Oh! I'm sorry," Hay Lin started. "Wow, you've got to be a good scout. You're so quiet even _I_ didn't notice you!" She beamed her standard megawatt smile at the slim girl with hair the color of slate.

"J-just part of o-our training," she answered, gawking at the personable Air Guardian. After a few silent seconds, Hay blinked, and the other girl did too, making her giggle.

"What's your name? I'm Hay Lin." Slate grey brows drew together for a second, then the girl laughed as well.

"Y-you won't be-believe me." She thumped her fist over her heart, and smiled. "M-my name i-is Zay K-klinn."

"Hey, Zay! We rhyme!" Hay chirped. She stuck her hand out, and when Zay took it hesitantly, Hay led her through a complicated gangsta handshake Eric had taught her from Texas, ending with a half-turn, a hip-bump and a European double cheek-kiss. Zay took the Air Guardian's antics stoically until the kisses started, then blushed furiously, which Hay noticed. "Awwww, Zay. I'm sorry. My friends always tell me I'm too much to take in large doses right away. My bad." She grinned.

"'s o-okay," Zay said. "I d-don't do well w-with lots of p-p-people." She smiled shyly back. "It's why I-I'm a scout."

"Hmm, well, how about just four other people? C'mon, I'll introduce ya." Hay wrapped a friendly arm around Zay and turned them both back towards Will, Acebo, and Bruyere. "Will? Meet Zay!"

Will gave the nervous young woman before her an appraising look. It was hard to say if she was more afraid of meeting the other Guardians, which was apparently Hay's intent, or Hay herself. The Air girl sure could be aggressively friendly. "Hi, Zay," Will said reassuringly, and held out her hand.

Zay shook it hesitantly, and Hay beamed at them both.

"Ooh, Irma!" she gushed, turning to the approaching Water Guardian and Elyon, with Cornelia and Koruk in tow. "Come meet Zay." Hay stepped back so the other Guardians could introduce themselves, and looked around for the Fire Guardian. She was deep in conversation with Hopa, the red lizardwoman, and two of Aldarn and Koruk's friends from town. If Hay's new relationship radar was accurate, Hopa and one of the pair of green men was a definite couple. Hay giggled as she turned back, and her radar noticed that while Zay was doing fine meeting the other girls, Koruk's proximity was making the poor scout's stutter twice as bad.

Vathek popped up behind Hay, stymieing the Air Guardian. _'How'd he get that close, without _me_ noticing?'_ she worried.

"All right, I hate to break up this little party, but we've got to get moving so we can find our missing Prince," he said, loud enough to carry throughout the room. Hay winced right before him, and he rested a reassuring hand on her shoulder, mistaking the reason for her jump. "Don't worry, Air Guardian. We'll get him."

The volunteers formed back up, distinct groups easy to see, just as Drake and Aldarn entered, a bound Miranda between them. The trio marched to stand in front of Elyon, murmurs following them the whole way. With salutes, Drake and Aldarn stopped, both saying "My Queen." "The requested prisoner," Drake continued, with a tug of the chord around Miranda's wrists, bringing her a step forward. The black-haired girl wouldn't lift her head.

Elyon looked at Miranda for a moment, aware of the hush fallen around them. She saw the metal band someone had snapped around the shapechanger's neck, a glowing red cabochon at her throat. _'An inhibitor collar,'_ Elyon realized. She took the final step to close the distance between them, and brought a gentle hand out to raise Miranda's chin. "Do you swear to help us without reservation in this mission?" she asked, looking into Miranda's eyes. She hadn't Taranee's range or practice yet, but with skin and eye contact, she could tell whether someone was telling her the truth.

Miranda nodded, her eyes red-rimmed but dry. "I swear it, on the blood of my enemies." She looked at Elyon steadily, waiting.

"Okay," Elyon said simply, and with a wave of her hand, Miranda's bindings fell free. "You're with me. Vathek? Let's divide and conquer."

_w.i.t.c.h._

Before they split apart at the north end of town, Will remembered the conversation she'd had with 'Mina two days ago, and turned to Elyon. "We should see to the movement of Crimson, Your Highness. The poor beast has had enough of Frost's influence, wouldn't you say?" Elyon goggled at her for a second, then composed herself. Leave it to the girl who worked in an animal clinic to think of that.

"Of course, Guardian. I know just the place. You others, stay here with her until I return. Miranda?" Elyon gave her dark-haired companion a nod, which the shapeshifter returned, and followed Elyon.

"Wonder why she took Miranda with ..?" Will murmured. Taranee snorted in bitter mirth.

"'cause of us all, Miranda's the only one who probably hates Frost more than I do," she said. "Apparently things weren't all wine and roses between the Knights of Vengeance."

"Whoa," Will breathed, just as the Queen and Miranda reappeared from a fold. "That was quick."

"Rhino's are easy to move with a little motivation, right, 'Randa?" Elyon giggled.

"Right … Elly," Miranda responded, remembering the nicknames they had called each other by when she had been the Queen's only friend in the Palace. Despite having chosen her brother's side in the following conflicts, she did miss some things from those days.

"And away we go," Will said, turning and leading the way west, into the Bog. Taranee kept up a mental count of their paces, and when she reached a hundred, Will gave the others a wave. "See ya later." She headed slightly left with Bruyere and three others, and the rest kept walking west.

After another hundred paces, Taranee gave the young Queen a reassuring hug, as much for her own benefit as Elyon's. "We'll get him, Elyon. Yell if you need us." She took her half of the remaining cluster of scouts, including Hopa and her boyfriend, and started towards the northwest, where the Eternal Stench got even worse in a bed of hot springs choked with sulfurous fumes. Elyon didn't envy her a bit.

"Alright, we're starting at that deadfall pass at the bottom of the Torrok Hills, right?" Elyon asked Drake, who nodded. "Let's get on with it then." She slogged further west, Drake, Miranda, Koruk, and Kaithi, one of the red lizardmen, following grimly.

_w.i.t.c.h._

Irma, Cornelia, and Hay were leaving through the south town gate, scouts in loose formation behind them, when they spotted Blunk and Caleb. Former rebel leader and faithful passling squire were both checking the ground where a path led down into the Bog of Eternal Stench. Irma found herself feeling sorry for the desperate folks who had tried to use Bog-water when Phobos had sealed the Meridian City wells.

"Recent tracks, heavy feet, and somebody with … crutches, I think. Two of them were carrying a third." Caleb stood up.

"W-why do you n-need us?" Zay asked Hay, who giggled.

"'cause he's going with me," Cornelia said with a satisfied smirk.

"Crutches means Frost," Irma snarled. "Looks like Phobie didn't feel like stalling their flight to heal him first. Hopefully that means they're holed up somewhere taking care of it now, giving us a chance to catch up and reverse the repairs."

"Irma!" Hay gasped, dismayed. Cornelia wasn't nearly as moved.

"He's tried to do you in too, hasn't he?" she asked simply. Irma shook her head, to Cornelia's surprise.

"Worse," Irma uttered. She gave Cornelia a significant look, and the two girls shuddered. Acebo nodded gloomily behind them.

"Our uncle would not let us near the barracks while Frost was part of Meridian's forces. Vathek took pains to see we were never brought to the Prince's attention for the same reason." She traded a dark look of her own with Caleb, who nodded back.

"I'd heard as much from the few fighting women who deserted to the rebellion," one of their green companions said. His name was Diont, and he shook his head. His many tiny horns, encircling his face like a beard made of bone, shone in the early daylight. "My own sister Ghail was one of them. He has a taste for young women, Frost."

"Oh, I get it now," Hay Lin said. "He's a …" Irma clapped her hand over her best friend's mouth, and just nodded.

"Exactly. Not someone we want to leave loose at all. We'll catch him. And the others."

They separated into groups of five, a Guardian at the heart of each, and the three parties started into the Bog, slowly working their way apart to begin as systematic a search as one could in the gigantic swamp.


	7. Chapter 7

"**I just can't help myself …"**

Mystic Prequel Fanfiction by: _A J_

(Standard Disclaimer Applies, _Rated __**M!**_)

Chapter 7

_Elyon:_

Koruk was in the lead, tugging at a series of especially recalcitrant vines in their path that wouldn't cut. Miranda had climbed up to see how much farther their objective of the Torrok Hills was, and Drake was eyeing the petite raven-haired shapeshifter warily, lest she try to escape. Kaithi was mumbling arcane words over a dry branch he'd scavenged earlier, trying to light one end as a torch. Elyon sat on a mossy stump, telepathically gossiping with the Guardians about the new hottie in French class.

"_I don't get why you're still taking French,"_ Irma sent to her. _"I mean, the rest of us're still gonna be on Earth, and you'll be taking up the reins here, right? How many people in Meridian speak French?"_

"_Four,"_ Elyon responded, giggling. _"Me, my parents, and now Caleb. That's a start, and we can teach it to others as our own private spy language."_

"_You've thought this over way too much, Elly,"_ Cornelia snorted. _"Besides, you're the Heart! Why would you need spies?"_

"_I still have enemies, 'Lia. Like my brother. Or the next Nerissa-alike. And the Count of the D'rigaan Province, and …"_

"_Okay, we get it. You need French. Or something else just as foreign."_ Elyon could hear the laughter behind Will's telepathic message.

"_What's up with the Count?"_ Taranee asked. Her mental voice sounded like she had a cold.

"_Oh, the usual medieval nightmare,"_ Elyon replied. _"He was a big supporter of my … of Phobos' rule, and sees my 'enlightened reign' as just a fad. It wouldn't surprise me if he's the one who helped the Prince escape."_

"_Sounds like someone you should just shun into submission,"_ Hay added to the discussion. Most of the Guardians just sent back giant mental question marks, but Taranee started laughing, then coughing.

"_You okay, T?"_ Will asked, worried.

"_Yeah … we're just … entering the hot springs,"_ Taranee returned, her mental voice sounding muffled. _"I may not mind the heat while all Guardianed-up, but I still have to _breathe!" The others laughed. _"Thanks a lot. Hey, Hay-hay. Could you flit this way long enough to give my team some breath-bubbles?"_

"_Sure! My team could use a quick break, anyway.''_

"_So, where did you hear about shunning, anyway?"_ The other girls strained their mental 'ears' to hear the exchange as they could all sense Hay Lin crossing a large section of swamp at mach speed.

"_Star Trek,"_ the Air Guardian blithely replied.

"_And here I thought she'd watched too much M. Night Shyamalan,"_ Elyon countered, and the Guardians laughed.

"_Thanks a million, Hay,"_ Taranee sent a few moments later, and her mental voice was back to normal. Hay told her "_Anytime_," and while she was swooping back to her team, Taranee explained shunning better for Elyon and the others.

_Will:_

Half an hour later, Will was crossing an especially moist area, Bruyere warily keeping pace at her side, when the two suddenly found a deep spot in the swamp the hard way. The Guardian leader shrieked as she went in over her head, just a step from a spot that had barely been ankle-deep. She and her new blue friend popped back to the surface, both swearing in their native languages.

"I wouldn't kick around too much, you two," Vathek said amiably, kneeling down to help the drenched girls back up from the brackish water. "This looks like an allodile's den." Will just spat the last of the water out of her mouth, confused by the half-familiar word. But Bruyere paled and climbed out all the faster.

"What's an allodile?" the red-haired girl asked as the two horned folk helped drag her out.

"That," one of their two companions said, pointing at a stream of popping bubbles swiftly approaching from across the deep area. All five turned to see a wicked violet saurian head break the surface inches from Will's ankles, snapping fang-filled jaws after her as she hastily flew up several feet.

"Allodiles're water-dwellers, fortunately," Vathek chuckled, as the flipper-equipped creature, easily as large as the blue guard, heaved itself back off the shallow spot they were all standing on and back into the deeper water. Will watched it go warily, noticing its similarities with aquatic dinosaurs she'd seen in books. The streamlined creature quickly disappeared from view in the depths of the murky pool, and she settled back to the muck out of its immediate jaw-reach with the others. The swimming monstrosity hadn't been nearly as graceful on land, pulling itself awkwardly the few feet it had like a sea turtle with its stubby webbed feet.

"Okay … not looking forward to meeting his friends, so … Quintessense." Will used her telekinetic command to bring her a thin three-meter branch from the ground nearby, and used it to test each step of their path from there on.

_Irma:_

Irma and her quartet slogged through the Bog of Eternal Stench (so named by Irma and Elyon amid a giggling fit last year) with wary eyes. Phobos, Frost, and their pack of lurdens weren't the only dangers out here after all. Will had just warned them all telepathically about the allodiles in the deeper spots, and Caleb (through Cornelia) passed on a similar admonition about the glow-snakes, Meridian's very real answer to the old Earth stories of will-o-wisps.

"Couldn't have run off to the beach, could he? Naaaah, that'd be too eeeeasy," the Water Guardian grumped. "Sun, shade, a little surf, some fruit drinks with little umbrellas in them … what's wrong with that? Instead, Phobie has to drag us after him into the muck and mire and …" She stopped abruptly, and Acebo behind her dug in her heels to keep from plowing her into the silty swamp. The blue-skinned girl's hurried hand signal halted the others, and they all turned to see what Irma was looking at.

"Larveks," Tarno said with a grimace. His black skin gleamed under the little daylight making its way through the subtropical canopy above them.

"Yeah, but … what happened to them?" Irma uttered. The three larvek carcasses were shredded down the middle, but it looked like whatever had done it had managed the feat from the _inside._ "No way one of your swamp dinosaurs or a neon snake did _this."_

"Maybe the creatures got on our fugitives' bad sides?" her greenwoman companion Vufira wondered.

"We can hope," Acebo spat. "I've never been on the swamp patrols before, but I'm sure anything that could do that would have been reported long before now."

"Considering that whatever it was could kill a larvek … _larveks_, but didn't choose to partake of the bounty afterwards, I'd say our missing prisoners are our most likely suspects," Tarno said. Vufira gave her kinsman Nandisi a questioning look, and he nodded.

"On that encouraging note …" Irma replied, and slogged in a wide circle around the gutted larvek bodies. They continued on, even warier than before.

_Taranee:_

She couldn't think of a quieter place offhand, but Taranee thought maybe the Library at midnight ran a close second to the unnatural stillness around her band of investigators. They were all standing on an outcropping of basalt, staring down at what had been a too-recent lava flow. All life in the area that could had fled, and the vegetation that survived would doubtless flourish once the volcanism had died down again.

"_Gang, the hot springs're a bust,"_ the Fire girl informed her teammates and Elyon. _"Looks like the vent that heated this place went all Mount Saint Helens down here within the last week or so. The magma isn't even all the way solid in here, yet. No way our unfriendly neighborhood baddies came this way."_

"_Might as well lead them back this way, T,"_ Elyon told her. _"There're more caves by us than we thought, and we could use the help."_ Taranee apprised her team of the Queen's request, and the five searchers made their way carefully back away from the recently active volcano.

_Cornelia:_

Diont was an accomplished aquamancer, for which Cornelia was endlessly thankful. He'd carefully check each deep body of scum-laden water as they came to it, sparing her from all but the largest of the worst areas. The one thing she didn't shirk, when it came inevitably, was a hands-on approach to combat.

Their other party-member, a young man named Neimad, was poking his sword cautiously between a large cypress-like tree's root-arches, when an angry howl erupted from under its nearest neighbor. Blunk shrieked, distracting the large sauropod that suddenly burst forth long enough for the young guard to flee from its snapping jaws.

"What the _#&][!"_ Cornelia screamed, waving her hands and making the two trees bend around the heaving monstrosity. She pinned it in place, and took to the air, looking for more of them.

"It's a dryx, Cornelia!" Caleb cried up to her. He snagged a nearby vine and swung up to the nearest branch by her. "They're solo hunters, not pack animals. We probably disturbed its nest."

"Or its last meal's final resting place," Neimad corrected, flicking reeking muck from his sword-blade. He closed the distance to the dryx' trapped head, and leveled the blade with one of its eyes.

"_NO!"_ Cornelia cried, calling another vine to tug him away from his lethal action. "We're not on a &\ _safari,_ mister. Don't touch the wildlife. It's trapped well enough we'll be long gone before it can dig out of there, so leave it." She settled down to ground level again next to him, glaring meaningfully. Caleb swung back to her side, and cast an alert eye around.

"Where's Blunk?" he sighed. Diont started laughing, and pointed back the way they came.

"Where else? Safely in the other direction, probably halfway back to Meridian City." Caleb smirked.

"Good thing I planned ahead, then." He pulled out a colorful box, opened it, and rattled it. "Hey, Blunk. Which one's your favorite? The elephant or the gazelle?"

Cornelia took one look at the box, and doubled over laughing. "That's how you got our tracker to 'volunteer'? You bribed him with _animal cookies?"_ She slowly floated up off the ground in her mirth, and eventually started drifting towards the direction they'd originally headed. Every now and then, she'd pause, look back over her shoulder at Blunk, and start giggling uncontrollably again.

"This is gonna be a long day," Caleb muttered to the other two men, slogging in her wake. Blunk caught up to him in a single rush, casting another worried look at the still-trapped dryx on his way past. Neimad cleaned his blade off and resheathed it, and followed Diont, shaking his head.

"These _girls_ bested Prince Phobos?" He threw a last disdainful look of his own at the dryx, which snarled ineffectually after them while trying to wriggle out from under the two warped trees.

"Blunk like the ephelants," could be heard a moment later, followed by fresh peals of Cornelia's laughter.

_Hay Lin_

Zay led them through the strange area at the south edge of the Bog, pointing out the unusual wildlife that flourished at the barrier between land and muck. Medium-sized (_'Football-player-sized.'_ Hay found herself thinking,) mudslugs kept company with froglike amphibians with brows as ridged as Vathek and Aldarn. Her butterscotch-complexioned companion Fayd identified them as kipli, and their buzzing prey as skirges. These foot-long mosquitos were the real menace to the searchers. Hay kept a ring of low-pressure air around the five of them so that as soon as one of the skirges flew near, it lost all lift under its wings and plopped into the mud. Zay and Fayd, both from nearby villages to the south, chuckled grimly whenever they noticed the trapped bugs getting eaten by the opportunistic predators of the swamp.

Hay's Air-enhanced hearing caught the low conversation of her rear guard, Aldarn and Radha, one of the red lizardfolk volunteers. _'Boys will never change,'_ she mused with a grin. The pair were talking about several girls they both knew, including two they both had 'known' in the biblical sense. Hay shook her head, her just-awakened libido cataloging several remarks for personal research later. Then a name arose in the conversation that made her pay _much_ closer attention.

"I'd pay a month's wages to get a night like that with Irma," Aldarn murmured, after Radha had finished relating a marathon bout with his latest lover.

Hay did her best to keep her gasp from alerting the two men that she was eavesdropping on them. Zay heard it from just ahead of her though, and paused to look at her quizzically. Hay shook her head, denying any problems, and whispered "Just a stray thought." She waved the other girl forward again, and returned her attention to the two men, still muttering together.

"Irma? The Water Guardian? I'd have thought you were partial to the flame-haired one," Radha was saying. Hay fought down her giggles, which got even harder to do when he continued. "I know _I_ am. Her temper is already legendary among my people, and her ingenuity as well." He smiled toothily. "It's well known the Keeper of a Heart is always brimming with the energy she wields, and never tires out. Especially when the exercise invited to is pleasurable."

Hay pretended to have a coughing fit to hide her laughter. The girls were going to have a field day when she told them these later. Will was _always_ complaining about being tired. "Just some dust," she lied to Fayd when he stopped to aid her. He took the second spot behind Zay for her in the meantime, and cast occasional wary glances back to check on her from then on.

"Will's taken, though," Aldarn sighed, recapturing the Air Guardian's attention. "The Regent of Earth is her chosen mate, according to Caleb, as _he_ is the chosen of our Queen's friend, Cornelia." A breath later, he added "I'm not sure who to feel sorrier for with that pair. She's a right terror, I hear, but Caleb himself is no catch. I love him like a brother, but he's crude at best, raised as he was by the other rebels in Julian's absence." The two men chuckled.

"So how would you … _court_ the Water Guardian?" Radha asked, his voice changing 'court's meaning to something much racier.

"She likes music. I'd invite her to the Winter Festival. We could dance the night away, even after the minstrels quit playing." Radha chortled, and a curious Hay Lin took a millisecond's peek over her shoulder, to see Aldarn rolling his hips suggestively. Her experience in an Earth high school gave her all kinds of possible feminist return jibes, but her new inner pervert fought them down heroically, the better to hear more.

In the meantime, she pretended to concentrate on putting one foot in front of the other in Zay and Fayd's wake, and practically had another choking fit when she noticed how much attention Fayd was paying to Zay's pert backside, himself. _'Well, I'm definitely keeping company with the right crowd,'_ she thought to herself, smiling slowly. She set herself to hearing more from the lecherous pair behind her, and did her best to keep her eyes open for other trouble.

_Taranee and Elyon:_

"Your brother sucks," Taranee said tiredly, climbing out of yet another low tunnel.

"I'll trade ya _any_ day," the young Queen responded with a smirk. She met Taranee's eyes, and the two girls giggled. Only Miranda, who'd been to Earth often enough to have seen the Fire Guardian's older brother, got the inside joke, and smiled faintly in agreement. "At least yours isn't Hell-bent on ruining your life."

"Nah, just the dating part," Taranee countered. "He was with the rest of us at the mall last week, and Will and Matt started making googley eyes at each other. Nigel went to hold my hand, and Peter gave us both _such_ a case of 'the Eye' ... Nige practically ran." Elyon laughed.

"You never know, T. He might be under orders from your 'rents. I don't think they've ever warmed up to him," she said. "_'specially_ not after the statue incident."

Hopa and Solaya, who'd gone to the sulfur spring with Taranee earlier, exchanged confused looks. Miranda's smile widened. She'd spent many hours in Elyon's company during that first year, and still understood most of the former Princess' 'Earth-speak'. "Her parents don't approve of her boyfriend; the two were responsible for defacing a statue together with some other Earth rebels," she explained to the other two young women. Hopa, who's strict warrior culture had many rules of honor and obedience, nodded quickly. Solaya, another of the many green folk who made up the bulk of Meridian City's population, snorted.

"She works with rebels of multiple worlds. Why should her parents mind this one boy?"

Taranee giggled again, before turning to her teammate. "My parents are … allies of the constables and magistrates, who help keep the rebels of Earth from disrupting our society. Unlike here with Phobos, our rebels don't have anything to be up in arms against, except boredom. Our rebels … well, they're actually a lot like Frost and Raythor were: tough guys acting bad because they wanted to ..." Elyon listened as intently as the others, but when Taranee said the last sentence, she burst out laughing. _"What?!" _the Guardian demanded telepathically.

"_You just relegated the likes of Frost to Uriah's level!"_ Elyon had to respond in kind, unable to get enough air to speak right away. Taranee grinned sheepishly.

Kaithi and Hopa stopped the others from going into the next cave when they reached it. "Something sleeps inside," Hopa told them. "Very large … mammalian …"

"_Smelly …"_ Miranda added, holding her button nose. "Faugh, the passlings at their worst were more appealing than this." Taranee cringed, for Blunk's sake. Miranda had made no apologies of her desire to devour the W.i.t.c.h. girls' odiferous companion. But the description of their current location's tenant had reminded her of something, and her encyclopedic mind quickly dredged it back up.

"Ohmigod, it's a Hermeneuta beast!" Taranee squeaked. "Let's get to the next cave, and just leave this one be." She backed away nervously. Once was bad enough; she had no desire to deal with another of the invisible, invincible super-boars that had totally thrashed Sheffield in a single night. _'And that one had been the baby!'_ she reminded herself.

The two teams split up again as they came to a half-collapsed hill with four cave openings in it.

Koruk and Drake warned the Queen back for a minute while limber Kaithi slipped in to the far left cave first. A second later, Hopa ducked into the next one, with a wary Solaya covering the entrance behind her. Taranee eyed the scouts' crossbows with renewed appreciation; they would come in much handier in the cramped tunnels than a regular bow, the traditional missile weapon of the standing Meridian army.

Kaithi reemerged a minute later. "This one ends in sand," he pronounced, dusting himself off as he stood straight again.

"I'll get the next one," Miranda sighed. "Coming, Drake?" she threw over her shoulder at her attentive jailer. His only answer was to check the cord on his crossbow, and to slip the knot on his sword-sheath. Miranda scurried into the third tunnel before anyone could see her rolling her eyes.

Before Kaithi could check the last entrance, Hopa poked out of it, making them all jump back, weapons drawn. "Sorry, everybody. These two connect, and lead into a network that heads down …" She looked around. "Well don't everyone come in at once …"

"Miranda's checking the one in the middle," Elyon told her, then nudged Drake out of the way. "'Randa?" she called, kneeling down. There was a moment's expectant silence, then a frightening screech sounded from the third cave. Elyon fell on her rump, swearing, and her hands began to glow.

"J A S, Elly," echoed out next, and Elyon and Taranee both relaxed. They had to reassure the others, though, who had no idea what the shifter had actually said.

"It's from Earth," Taranee explained to her team. "A short way of saying just a second. Well, of writing it, anyway," she added, as she saw them all sounding both versions out for themselves in confusion. _"Are we that bad with our net-ese, Elyon? _Miranda's _using it around us?"_

Elyon huffed. _"Mostly my fault, there, T. Those first few months here in Meridian, just me and Miranda, while I wasn't talking to you guys …"_ They grinned at each other sheepishly. _"Yeah, well, I mean, I was missing Earth MAJOR, ya know? And chatting on the net, and hanging with other girls, and … I sorta educated 'Randa in Earth culture to stave it all off."_ Miranda came out of the third tunnel then, a strange grin on her face, and a dark stain on the front of her dress and one sleeve.

"Sorry that took so long, Elly." She sucked for a moment on the end of her pinky finger, on the same hand where the sleeve was darkened. Taranee suddenly suspected what the stain was, and had her theory confirmed inadvertently by Kaithi, who licked his lips nearby. "It's lunchtime back in Torus Filney."

"Ooookay," Elyon countered, and turned to face Hopa. "Will we all fit through there?"

Hopa cast an expert eye across their collected team. "Hmm, Koruk and Drake might get caught at their shoulders, but the rest of us should fit," the red-scaled woman replied. The two broader men looked around at their slimmer compatriots, and Drake cleared his throat.

"No problem, Your Majesty. Someone should stay out here and guard the entrances anyway." Koruk nodded with a sheepish grin, and Taranee gulped. She'd wanted that job for herself; she wasn't looking forward to crawling through a cramped cave looking for their missing fugitives … then it hit her.

"Hey, Elyon ..? No way did your brother scamper down this particular rabbit hole. _'specially_ not carrying Cedric or Frost!" The whole company's mood lightened considerably at that.

Even Miranda breathed a sigh of relief. She had no objections personally to crawling through an extensive cave system. Heck, it sure beat staring at the same four walls for months on end! But the dratted Fire Guardian was most definitely right, no way was her dear Cedric down that tiny hole, let alone the bulky Frost or the lurdens, the least of whom stood out half again as muscular as the baker's son or Drake.

"You're right, T …" Elyon admitted with a reassured smile. "Still, I won't feel right 'til we've checked in there sooner or later. But for now …" The young Queen looked at the two caves in question for a moment, the grinned wider. "Hey 'Randa? Could you web these two shut for the time being? We can send a team to check them out later when we can spare them. Even if my brother hasn't found a use for them, it doesn't mean somebody else hasn't, right?"

"Absotively posilutely, Your Majesty," Miranda said with a grin of her own. She shooed the others back, and while Drake stood by her with a cocked crossbow, she morphed into her four-legged spider-form. A few seconds' work with her spinnerets, and she sealed each tunnel tightly, then shrank back to her little girl's body. Giving Drake a quelling glance for his dedication to duty, she resettled her dress, and stepped back to the Queen's side. "Hmm, mayhaps I should leave at least a small hole in one, … Elly. You know, so any small animals in there can get out at least?" she wheedled. Elyon gave her a nod f agreement, and Miranda knelt before the left tunnel again, and made a hand-sized hole at the bottom of her web.

"That should be more than big enough for any stray jhares to use," Kaithi nodded, eyeing her handiwork. "To the next cave, Your Majesty?"

"With this as a reminder, we can hopefully speed up the process," Taranee said, when Elyon seconded the idea.

"Hear, hear," Hopa said, looking back at Drake again. "From now on, we only check caves _you_ can fit in, Captain," she told him with a grin. The others laughed, and they continued into the Torrok Hills.


End file.
